Interviewed after winning their 3rd victory on a P2000 during the 2022 edition of the Pyramids, Bastien Blanqué and Thomas Leygue went to the microphone of Padel Mag to come back to this success.

A “very average” start to the match, a huge final tie-break

Padel Magazine : How do you feel after such a fight, a very tight match in three sets?

Bastien Blanqué : “Tired. Very happy, it was clearly a fight. We had a very average start to the match, we lacked intensity… tactically, we didn't listen to each other too much… We weren't in it.

In the second set we are recovering well, the tactics were clear. And in the third, we break and then I collapse (mentally) for three games. I let Jo [Bergeron] take over me on the diagonal and crash into me.

Afterwards, we were able to respect our tactics again, Thomas helped me get back into it and in the end, I got back into the game. We had a good end to the match, in the tie-break we quickly led 4-0 and then we finished the job. So we are very happy. Win a third P2000 with Thomas (Editor's note: the second this year), it's really cool ! »

Bastien Blanqué and Thomas Leygue photo trophy P2000 Pyramids 2022
Bastien Blanqué and Thomas Leygue posing with their P2000 des Pyramides trophies

"It's very hard what we live internationally"

Padel Magazine : Why didn't you go to FIP in Egypt and did you choose to go to this P2000 instead?

Thomas Leygue : “So personally I parted ways with Jo internationally a very short time ago and to go to Egypt, it would have had to be with someone I had been playing with for a long time.

It's true that I could have gone there with Bastien, but we made the choice to play the P2000. I think we needed to come back to play in France, to see the public, to win a tournament.

I think it's very hard what we live internationally. You have to know, as I said through comments or old interviews, that we go to a tournament knowing that we are not going to win the tournament. For confidence, it's very hard to do tournaments like that. Ending a tournament with a defeat is inevitably a disappointment.

Coming back to France is definitely good for us. Having a possibility of winning, even if the level is very high, is rewarding. We see that it's hard and by playing a big game that we manage to win 7-6 in the last set. Honestly they [Inzerillo/Bergeron] deserved it as much as we did. I think it's a very good choice to come back to do this P2000 in Paris, at home. »

“We won't be favourites, but we won't be far for sure”

Padel Magazine : Do you feel favorites for the French championships at the end of October in Toulouse…. even against a Tison/Bergeron pair?

Bastien Blanqué : “It's possible after we are not guaranteed to be seeded 2, so we could meet the pair Tison / Bergeron in the semi-finals and not in the final. Favorites? No, because Ben is 65th in the world, Jo and he are reigning French champions, so we won't be favorites, but we won't be far away, that's for sure. We'll see what happens, at least that's the goal this year with Tom. »

Thomas Leygue : “I believe that the seed 2 is confirmed, because it seems to me that the classification is blocked for a certain time before the start of the French championships. And the next FIP ​​is in 3-4 weeks and it is not possible that they take the points a week before for the ranking of the French championships. At the moment we are number 3 and 6, according to the logic and the rules it is almost certain that we will be seeded number 2.

Bergeron / Tison - Blanqué / Leygue P2000 Toulouse 21
From left to right Johan Bergeron Benjamin Tison Thomas Leygue Bastien Blanqué

“When there is a hot moment, we all become paranoid”

Padel Magazine : There were contentious points during this final of the Pyramids. Was it tense?

Thomas : "Even more when you play against friends, because I consider Jo (Bergeron) and Jérôme (Inzerillo) as friends: it's sure that when you get on the pitch, there's no one who loves each other anymore. . Everyone wants to be right, it's winning, it's a fight.

So it's true that even if our unconscious is convinced that the ball is right or wrong, of course we still want it to be on our side. Afterwards it's a way of managing them and sometimes we can become paranoid because we have the impression that on both sides, everyone has the same feelings. They have the impression that on the disputed points, we have stolen the point and on our side, it's the same. I think there were one or two refereeing errors, one on our side and one on theirs.

As Jérémy Scatena said last year in the final of the P2000 at the Pyramids, it would be good to have referees in the finals and semi-finals of the P2000. There can be mistakes, it's part of all sports. I don't think it changes the outcome of the game at all. We all got back into the game two games later and the game ended in good conditions. When we shook hands, it was in very good agreement, there was fair play on both sides. 

When there's a hot moment in a match, when there's rivalry, when you know the match is tight and it's going to come down to a few details, well, we all get paranoid. We have the impression that it is the adversary who is wrong and that we are right. »

Nasser Hoverini

Passionate about football, I discovered the padel in 2019. Since then, it's been crazy love with this sport to the point of abandoning my favorite sport.

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