Bastien Blanqué is one of the very best French players. French champion of padel in title, he left to conquer Spain and the professional circuit to live his passion and try his luck in this ultra-competitive environment. This workaholic looks back on his start to the season, but also on his adventure in Madrid, where he has been sitting for more than two years.

  • Since the start of the season, there have been a lot of changes. Can we already take stock of it?

A little difficult start to the year on the professional circuit of padel, World Padel Tour, with 2 losses in the first round of the pre-qualifiers. But after Alicante, we have finally unblocked the counter. And it feels good. I'm happy with my level of play at the start of the season. In France, with Johan Bergeron, we won THE tournament at the start of the season with the 4PADEL of Valenciennes (1st stage of the FFT Padel Tour – P2000). The game is being set up. Our cohesion with Jo is always at the top on the track!

  • Exactly, what is this work that you put in place with your coach Ramiro Choya?

With my coach, we focus a lot on reducing direct mistakes, which is ultimately the basis of this sport as Ramiro quite often tells me.

We are also working on another important aspect of this sport which is the lob, a good quality of lobs allows to take the net in better conditions and thus be more offensive.

All this requires to be flawless physically that's why I am very hard at this level, and it pays because I feel better and better on the track.

  • During this final of FFT Padel Tour Valenciennes, we saw you particularly attacking. Is this also a new strategy?

I feel more confident in my game. Being more comfortable, we can do things we did not do before. By being more offensive, by cutting the trajectories, it allows to give less time to the opponents to organize themselves. But to do it, I needed to be serene in the game by being more regular. I am in a very interesting process and starting to see that. I hope this is just a start.

With Ramiro, we did a lot of work in this game of background with more regularity and more effective lobs.

I am lucky to have an exceptional training group, I train more and more all alone with Paquito Navarro, Juan Lebron and Alex Ruiz ... nothing better to continue to progress every day.

I think my "bases" Padel and Physique are much stronger than last year so it allows me to be more relaxed, more confident and to completely free myself on the field.

  • Very recently, you had news related to your WPT partner ...

Actually, little change on that side. I started the season with Jacobo Cendon as announced but it changed recently, to tell you he told me he did not want to play with me Sunday just before the final of Valenciennes.

Timing quite problematic because 48 hours before the end of registrations for the WPT of Alicante but upon my return to Madrid on Monday, we tried to find a player with Ramiro Choya. So I played this tournament with Raul Medina, a young 19 player from Palma de Mallorca who came to train with us one week last year and who plays well so happy and relieved given the time.

We had a good tournament with Raul, we win the first match in two sets and lose the second, but that positive to remember.

For the rest of the season, we will discuss with Ramiro Choya on his return from Alicante.

  • This victory in France with Jo, it allows to launch your season? Will it help Spain?

This victory can indeed launch this season. I feel good since the beginning of the season and my game evolves with more solid bases. A victory that gives confidence and reassures for the future in Spain.

I had approached this first step very serenely, we were not favorites because we were only seeded 2 and it had been a few months since Johan and I had not played together.

Before this tournament we had made a few days in Barcelona, ​​we immediately found this complicity on the track and outside, so I was not at all worried.

After each match in Valenciennes, a good warm-up before the matches, rigor and fun. Very happy with the first tournament!

  • We feel the Bastien today, more confident and good in his head ...

Indeed, it is the fruit of a long work on the physical, the padel and the mind.

I work a lot physically, which allows me to be in shape on the track.

Then, the objectives that we have access with Ramiro Choya (no faults, lobs effective) allow me to be more regular, more confident and therefore more liberated on the field so that I am more aggressive.

There is also another point, since 10 month now I work with a mental trainer on Toulouse, Nathalie who helps me a lot.

Nothing is acquired, it will have to work even more (and you know that I like it (Laugh) to succeed to have results on the WPT circuit and also on the next tournaments in France because the level continues to increase .

Photo credit: Thierry Tonneaux

 

Franck Binisti

Franck Binisti discovers the padel at the Club des Pyramides in 2009 in the Paris region. Since padel is part of his life. You often see him touring France going to cover the major events of padel French.

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