Exciting discussion with the former French top 10, Pierre-Etienne Morillon. From his cardiac arrest on the track to the latest padel news, the rackets sports sales representative Head returned to various topics during the final stages of the Head Padel Open 2023 at My Center Palavas.

“I will play padel again”

“I think I will play padel again, but I don't know at what level. The level has increased and I am also getting older. I turned 40 this year and I also had a big health problem. So, I am not sure if I will be able to play again or have the desire and courage to play again at a nice level.

I had a cardiac arrest on the track during training in Lyon. Fortunately, I got out of it without sequelae thanks to medical care. I was implanted with a subcutaneous defibrillator to ensure my safety.”

"They saved my life"

“I was training with Johan Bergeron in Lyon (note to Esprit Padel). By chance, a firefighter was playing next to us. When I had my cardiac arrest, this firefighter intervened quickly by performing cardiac massage and using a defibrillator to resuscitate me. I am grateful to these people who saved my life.”

morillon bergeron

“The level of players increases, not the level of tournaments”

“The level of the best players is undeniably increasing. Many players have real projects and young players are more and more involved, some even go to Spain to develop. However, there are too many tournaments, which sometimes dilutes the quality of the competitions.

Even the P500s are not always full. To find quality tournaments, the number of competitions should be reduced to bring together more players.

“We must release the prize money”

“I think we have to release the prize money and allow the organizers who wish to put in more money.

For example, if a P500 tournament wants to offer a reward of 5 euros, I don't see where the problem is. For lower level tournaments like P000 or P100 it is not shocking to have no prize money, as players participate more for fun and points than money. But let the clubs decide freely what they want to offer in terms of rewards.”

Pierre Etienne Morillon

“A category to attract the best”

“I think creating a category with total freedom on the allocation is a good idea depending on the weight of the tournament and the level of the teams. Thus, we could better differentiate the tournaments and attract the best French and foreign players by offering attractive rewards. Perhaps the number of points should be indexed according to the weight of the tournament, in order to better reflect the quality and level of the competition.

“No more big specialist padel clubs”

“The sports model in Italy, just like in Spain, is different from that of France. In Italy and Spain, many private clubs have quickly invested in padel by converting tennis courts. In France, we are still mainly based on an associative model with tennis clubs that add one or two padel courts.

To catch up with Italy, there would have to be faster development with private clubs specializing in padel.

team head padel open 2023

“Municipalities could delegate sites to private actors”

“To accelerate the development of padel in France, municipalities should delegate sites to private players who are specifically dedicated to padel. This would allow more padel courts to be created and accelerate the growth of the sport. Tennis association clubs could also consider adding more padel courts to meet the growing demand. It is important to draw inspiration from successful models in Italy and Spain to develop padel in France.”

“The best French people must continue to play French tournaments”

“I think we are still in a phase of developing padel in France. Events such as the Roland-Garros tournament and the WPT Toulouse are excellent for promoting the sport. However, it is important to have our best French players playing on the national circuit to attract foreigners. We must continue to find innovative ideas and draw inspiration from countries that have managed to develop padel significantly.”

Franck Binisti

Franck Binisti discovered padel at the Club des Pyramides in 2009 in the Paris region. Since then, padel has been part of his life. You often see him touring France to cover major French padel events.

On the same subject

Tags