Alexia Dechaume: “A historic Euro”

The former tennis champion, Alexia Dechaume is fully committed to the world of padel. Today, as padel coordinator, she is responsible for training young people and developing women's practice. She looks back on the great adventure she had during the Junior European Championships in Hungary, as well as the policy put in place by the FFT to support and assist young talents in their padel journey.

“A little bitter taste among the girls, but we are in our place”

What assessment do you draw, as coordinator of the Mission? Padel FFT, Euro 2024?

"For the girls, with the valuable advice of captains Laura Clergue and Géraldine Sorel, we finished in 4th place^e place: that was the initial objective. Augustine Charpentier, Zia Debroy (U14), Victoria Isaac, Feryel Bekhedda (U16), Louise Bahurel and Lou Lambert-Agosti (U18) gave their all (see the full list of teams below). Of course, after the event, we feel a little bitter taste, because we lost to the Portuguese team for the bronze medal, a team that we had beaten in the group stage. The medal slipped under our noses when it seemed attainable! That said, we are in our place, since Spain remains untouchable and the Italians (silver medalists) have a solid technical training, more accomplished than us in the U14 and U16.

An almost “historic” silver medal

And what about the boys?

"It's extremely positive, not to say historic. I'm proud of all the players: Sacha Huard de la Marre, Nathan Perrot, Eliott Mura and Gabriel Bessiere in the U14s, Olivier Guy de Chamisso and Jérémy Robert in the U16s, and Yoan Boronad, Thomas Basso and Timéo Fonteny (U18s)... not to mention the captains Yann Auradou and Yannick Maurel, who do a great job with the boys all year long.

We are leaving with the silver medal and we only lost to Spain in the competition, in the group stage and therefore in the final. Of course, with Spain, there is a logical difference that remains. However, our improvement is palpable. There is a match, with real confrontations.

And then, above all, there is this extraordinary result by Timéo Fonteny and Thomas Basso, who beat Francisco Cabeza and Alejandro Calvo in the final after an epic match: 7/5 2/6 7/6. Even if the match counted for little (because the first two points were won by Spain), the Spanish played the game. It is truly historic: for the first time in an official competition, all categories combined, France won a match against a Spanish pair. Not to mention the pairs tournament where Jérémy Robert and Olivier Guy de Chamisso made it to the semi-finals. I am really happy, as is Ben Tison, our sports director, who was there all week with the players, both male and female, and the captains.

More and more players developing structured projects

How can we explain these good results?

"It's a question of experience, of work done by management Padel for 3 years through the creation of competitions, sports projects that are being set up in leagues, clubs and academies. It is ultimately a set of actions that are emerging for the development of padel for young people. I was recently looking at the table that I keep, and on which I list the projects carried out by our young people. I see that in 2024, there are more and more players who are developing structured projects. This is very clear among the boys: they train almost every day, whether in U18, U16 or U14, play tournaments, capitalize on experience... As for the girls, we see that they are also devoting themselves more and more to padel, even if the group that was at the Euro has less experience, fewer selections and therefore a little less experience than the boys.

What is the next step ?

"We are currently setting up the calendar of national gatherings. Nothing is completely decided yet, but our goal is there: we will organize two U2025 gatherings and one gathering for the U14 and U16 during 18. We will continue the detection work: all the leagues have set up numerous regional gatherings where the padel management is regularly present. Then, the TNJ calendar (national youth tournaments) is launched: the first will take place in December at the All In Country Club in Lyon. There will be three in total, plus a Master. And for the first year, we are adding the U14 competition (for boys) in addition to the U16 and U18. Personally, I can't wait to discover the new generations, that is to say the young people born between 2010 and 2014. I am sure that we will see great things in the years to come."

Composition of the teams involved

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French Young Girls Team

Category	Last Name	year of birth	the Region
U14	Augustine Charpentier	2010	HDF
U14	Zia Debroy	2010	HDF
U14	Eva Nguyen Ba	2010	NVA
U16	Alice Aznar	2008	CFB
U16	Victoria Isaac	2008	OCC
U16	Feryel Bekhedda	2009	IDF
U16	Neila Bekhedda	2009	IDF
U18	Louise Bahurel	2006	ARA
U18	Kimy Barla	2007	PACA
U18	Lou Lambert Agosti	2007	OCC

Captains: Géraldine SOREL (PCA) and Laura CLERGUE (PCA)

French Young Boys Team

Category	Last Name	year of birth	the Region
U14	Sacha Huard of the Marre	2011	HDF
U14	Nathan Perrot	2010	OCC
U14	Eliott Mura	2011	NOR
U14	Gabriel Bessiere	2012	OCC
U16	Jeremy Robert	2008	ARA
U16	Olivier Guy de Chamisso	2008	IDF
U16	Basil Baud	2008	ARA
U18	Timeo Fonteny	2007	OCC
U18	Yoann Boronad	2007	OCC
U18	Tom Basso	2007	ARA

Captains: Yannick MAUREL (OCC) and Yann AURADOU (IDF)

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