Alexis Salles saw his mandate renewed with the French Tennis Federation as the coach of the French men's team in 2020. A very special year with the Coronavirus which is rampant in the world. He also saw some changes in his team and with the France ladies team.

  • An adventure that began a very long time ago ...

Le padel, I've been eating it for 23 years. I quickly became addicted to the sport. In 1997, there was then almost no structure in France. Apart from Spain, the padel was totally unknown in France. Consistently, people confused it with stand up paddleboarding.

If we have to compare with today, it is day and night. And so much the better for our sport.

Today, we can even say that the padel seems to take precedence over the paddle; That says everything !

  • Experience in padel unique…

There are bound to be hours on the clock.

Since all this time, I have been able to acquire a great experience in padel. And it continues with this great experience among young people last year in Spain. Next year, it will be my friend and friend Laurent Imbert who will take over the bar among the boys alongside Sandy Godard. 2 pillars of padel French, whom the FFT trusts to lead the adventure for the European Championships of padel young people in 2020.

  • Containment ...

I'm not going to hide it from you, as a chartered accountant, I work a lot. With what we are experiencing today, companies are bound to have big problems. But I keep an eye on the padel and I was also able to discuss with some of the players to talk about the future.

  • Patrick Fouquet is no longer….

It's a complicated subject. Patrick Fouquet did a very good job as coach of the France ladies team. He obtained great results and we can only thank him for his work and his investment. We lived incredible moments together. We have been very close.

But the FFT made the decision not to renew it this year. Difficult for me to say more on this subject.

  • Robin Haziza, not obvious…

Robin Haziza has been a pillar of the French men's team for almost always. It has been in all our adventures with the France team. And yes, we would have preferred to keep it with us at the gentlemen's. But he preferred to choose another path and we can only support him in his new prerogatives. And then he becomes the captain of the France ladies team. He will bring a lot, I am sure to the girls.

Suddenly, we will have to change our plans for associations. Perhaps we could review the association Adrien Maigret and Benjamin Tison. Everything is possible.

And then for the gentlemen, the competition is very tough. We may see players like Thomas Leygue or Justin Lopes confirm in 2020. Many other players can claim to the France team like Maxime Moreau or others.

  • Thierry Pham, a very good recruit for the world of padel

With Thierry Pham, the high level manager padel, the current goes very well. And I think the FFT did well to appoint Thierry to this post. He managed to take a full tour of all the players and take the pulse to make the right decisions, even if they are never simple.

I also agree with the words of Hubert Picquier, the elected representative in charge of padel, which I could read in one of the interviews you did. It's good to have someone new who has a vision without a priori on the padel because the closeness that we can have can make us do bad things.

To find out more about Alexis Salles, his + and his -, his anecdotes, visit the podcast of our live show “FACE-A-FACE” on INSTAGRAM here: https://youtu.be/15j6i1cDp8w

Xan is a fan of padel. But also rugby! And his posts are just as punchy. Physical trainer of several padel, he unearths atypical posts or deals with topical subjects. It also gives you some tips to develop your physique for the padel. Clearly, he imposes his offensive style as on the field of padel !

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