Alain Idier, president of the Club de Saint-Cyrien, shares his career within the club and explains how it has benefited from the growth of padel, without sacrificing tennis. He also reveals the upcoming projects for the club, including the integration of the pickleball.

From one to six padel courts!

My story with the Saint-Cyrien club began in 2000. The club organized its first padel sessions, with some players who are still active today. I was not yet a member at that time. The only padel court had a hard floor and it was simply surrounded by railings. Saint-Cyrien was a bit of a pioneer because it was one of the first clubs to have a padel court. At the beginning we only had 5 to 6 young players, including Olivier Frandjian and Thomas Paoli.

I joined the committee about five years ago, starting out with the development work. We acquired a second track shortly after, and our padel adventure grew. With the growing enthusiasm, we quickly added four more tracks, making a total of six in a very short time.

There was a critical moment when we almost lost the club. The town hall had lost confidence in the former presidency and was considering a clean slate. Faced with this situation, we decided to meet with municipal officials to propose our candidacy for president. This is how in March 2023 I became president.

Like Bernard Tapie

I wanted long-time members of the club to join me in this adventure. This is why I agreed to be president of the club on condition of being supported by Benoît Chareyre, Thomas Paoli and Yannick Gueguen, who together have more than forty years of club experience. With their support, and the time to dedicate, I was ready to take the reins of the club.

For the record, when I arrived as president of the club, the women's tennis team was playing to reach the higher division. Being passionate, I followed their journey carefully. Shortly after, and for the first time, they reached the national level. As I said jokingly, during a previous discussion, it was “a bit like when Bernard Tapie took the reins of OM and they became champions”!

Pickleball is coming

Currently our team is made up of nine people, six of whom are long-standing members of the club. Our sponsors offered us the financial support necessary to follow our women's team in international competitions and launch projects. Among these projects, we introduced three new mini tennis courts and we began to integrate pickleball, since the surface area allows for both sports. Pickleball is still new to us, I don't know what it's going to be like.

This sport caught our attention following a conversation I had two years ago with Cyril Saulnier. He explained to me that while padel was not yet very popular in the United States, pickleball was very successful there. We talked with our tennis teachers and decided to test this sport. We then installed three fixed pickleball courts. It's quite funny because we received requests for information before the courts were even inaugurated.

We are looking to diversify our offerings even more, because we have a room that is currently unused and we would like to transform it into a gym. The goal is to create an environment where our youth could engage in various sports activities, whether it is padel, tennis, pickleball, or mini-tennis for children.

A strong dynamic

This year, we registered 830 new registrations. This dynamic pushes me to consider adding two new padel courts to anticipate a strong demand next year. Without these two additional courts, I don't know if we won't be forced to limit registrations because I don't want to sacrifice tennis.

I am certain that padel will continue to evolve in the years to come, it is a conviction that I have maintained since 2017. I have daughters who play tennis at the national level, and my only concern is that they could gradually abandon tennis in favor of padel.

Dorian Massy

New padel fan, I am fascinated by this dynamic sport that combines strategy and agility. I find in padel a new passion to explore and share with you on Padel Magazine.

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