Alix Collombon: “We are going to play Rome like the boys”

When for his Cupra Padel Point Tour pyramids, Franck Binisti interviewed Alix Collombon, the French number 1 and current 25th in the WPT ranking. The Cupra ambassador talks about various current topics.

Do better with Victoria Iglesias?

I hope to see better, I hope to do better.

So far we've done three tournaments. In the first tournament, with only joint training, we almost made it to the quarter-finals with a very big match in the round of XNUMX against Tamara Icardo and Virginia Riera.

The match that gives the most regret is the one against the Alayeto twins in Toulouse in the eighth. We made a very good start to the match, we lead 4-1, there were two or three more complicated games, and we could have done better if we had won this first set.

collombon iglesias victory human padel open 2023

And the last tournament, we face Gemma Triay and Martita Ortega in eighth, it is certainly more affordable than with Alejandra Salazar, but it remains very complicated.

The famous eighth against Mapi and Majo Alayeto in Toulouse

Clearly, they didn't do well in this match, unlike us.

Then they had a lot of success, gates that fell. At 4/1, Mapi makes an exceptional defense on the no-ad. We realize that at 5/1 it is no longer the same thing.

Victoria Iglesias - Alix Collombon 16th HPO

In any case, there was a bit of a lack of success, we also went down, and after that they found their cruising speed. And when they play well, they are better than us.

Debut at Valencia this Wednesday

We start against qualifiers, but this year there are no more easy matches. We can play qualified, the girls arrive with rhythm, with two matches in the legs, they know the conditions, the level is higher and higher. Obviously we hope to win and have the opportunity to play Gemma and Martita again in the second round, hoping to do better.

Alix in Barcelona, Victoria in Seville…

It's better to be able to train together, but there are so many tournaments this year that there are few training periods. We play a lot, we travel a lot, but we try when we can, me to go to Seville, she to come to Barcelona. For the moment we haven't had too much time, the week we had free she went to do an exhibition in Dubai, it was a lost week, but for the moment we haven't really succeeded to train together. Obviously it's better to train together, but it's not at all essential.

More pressure with Iglesias than with Alonso?

This may come as a surprise, but I have no additional pressure. It's weird to say it like that but I know I have the level to play with her. Obviously she brings me things through her experience, I believe that I also bring things to her with the stability and the seriousness that I can have, so I think that we bring things to each other.

iglesias collombon world padel tour France

Playing with her makes me want more and that I can go from eighth to quarters, from quarters to halves, to get into the Top 20.

I know that she is not yet 100% following her ankle injury, she is not yet completely sure in her support but she has no pain so that is the main thing. She had a big sprain, it was not the first time.

I bring him a lot physically, in Marbella I had to cover a lot of ground and we played well. What interests me is the game, how we play together, how we improve and the results will come with it I hope.

Delighted for Alejandra Alonso who surprises with Andrea Ustero

It's easy today to say that we should have continued. She proves that she has the level, it freed her from no longer playing with me. She was playing for the first time with a player better than her, she had more pressure. When I saw her matches in Valladolid, I thought “if she had played like that with me”, we could have done better (laughs).

Today she plays with Alejandra Ustero, a young left-hander who plays really very well, and their results don't surprise me. I'm happy for her.

“We are going to play Rome like the boys”

The WPT sent us a letter saying that if we played on another circuit, it could have consequences. I think they are obliged to do things legally in quotation marks, but in my opinion it will have no repercussions: we will play Rome like the boys, we will play Roland-Garros like the boys.

It is hoped that there will be an agreement between the WPT and Premier Padel. Apparently we're close, but so much has happened in the past year and a half, everything is going very fast. As players, we don't know more than that, it's pretty vague, there are a lot of misunderstandings.

What does the mean resignation of Ale Galan as president of the PPA ? I don't know, but that doesn't inspire confidence.

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Xan Tafernaberry

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 !