Alexandre Picquier, President of FIP Rise of Bourg-en-Bresse (01 Padel Masters) looks back on the competition on Franck Binisti's microphone and gives us some information for next season.

“Hubert Picquier can be proud of us”

“The story started with my uncle Hubert, who was at the time vice-president of the International Padel Federation and the first elected padel representative at the French Tennis Federation. It was an event that he had initiated. And with the young referees of Ain, the school that he had created at the time, we had decided to set up this padel event for him and unfortunately, circumstances meant that we did it without him. There is an emotional charge that is very strong this weekend, but we still went through with the project and I think he must be proud of us up there.”

“A baptism of fire”

“For us, it's a bit of a baptism of fire since we don't originally come from the padel world. My experience is more in the outdoor and trail domain. I've been a small padel player for a year now and it's true that we didn't necessarily have all the codes at the beginning. History has meant that we also had to adapt to meet the right people, including you since you were the first person we approached, who opened up an incredible network for us, notably through David Matteo, who is now the tournament director, and then the French Tennis Federation which played an incredible role with Stéphane Berrafato. In fact, there was a kind of alliance around this and that's really what made it very beautiful. It's true that we're very proud.”

A shock team

“We had doubts until today, since we didn't necessarily know if the public would respond en masse. What we are really proud of is that we managed to bring in people who were not from the padel world with people who were in the sport. It created a kind of mayonnaise that took, I think particularly with Ludovic Collet, who played a major role in terms of animation, Gaëlle Millon who comes from a completely different background and who hosted the Web TV. In fact, all these people who were uninitiated, who mingled with Laura Clergue, with Mario (Cordero), with Laurent (Imbert), with you, it created a kind of melting pot which worked and we are really proud of it.”

“As for the volunteers, obviously, Hubert's memory got things going. It was incredible, we had to close the volunteer site, we blocked 90 people! I've never seen that in my life to say: 'No, we can't take you anymore.'”

The misfortune of some...

“Everyone told us: “the problem is that you have a Major in front of you (Acapulco), it will be complicated to have a good field”. But finally, circumstances made us lucky because of the bad luck of others and we had a field that we should never have had in this event, and which also makes it a total success on a sporting level.”

A FIP Gold in 2024?

“It’s a kind of lab test that we wanted to do on this Hall A. We are going to ask ourselves the right questions because it is certain that financially, we are not going to balance the books. So somewhere, we also have to ask ourselves the question of the future.

But I have always had a positive temperament. So the idea is to continue this and continue as we have always done, that is to say by looking upwards. And the idea is to go upmarket, perhaps a FIP Gold, since we know that the FIP has given us its agreement. So the ball is in our court now, but a Gold FIP also generates other charges, new costs. On the other hand, if we do a FIP Gold, we will also ask ourselves the question of switching to the site of the basketball hall which has more than 3 seats, which we will put in a two-thirds configuration since we will put up a curtain to put the village behind. But overall, we would have between 500 and 2 places.”

FIP Rise Bourg public
Guitar-concert-FIP-Rise-Bourg

“We also need the Bresse public, because we are not a padel land, to join in. Today, it is only a novice public, but who have also vibrated and discovered this sport. That is also the objective. It is an edition that will, I think, call for others.”

“We will try to keep this concept of an indoor tournament at the end of the season. I think it's not bad. Afterwards, maybe moving it back a week to maybe be a week before Milan, so that people are on the way, that could also be a good idea. We'll see, we'll also work on the date, but the idea is that we'll try to promote padel in France!”

To watch the video interview, it's just below:

https://youtu.be/qcq3t2NsiUY?si=5EarVS7uGwVIVbMz

Xan is a fan of padel. But also of rugby! And his posts are just as punchy. Physical trainer of several padel players, he finds atypical posts or deals with current topics. He also gives you some advice to develop your physique for padel. Clearly, he imposes his offensive style as on the padel court!

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