Dorian de Meyer and Thomas Vanbauce, two key figures in French padel, delivered a remarkable performance to overcome Philémon Raichman and Maxime Joris in the round of 2024 of the XNUMX French Championships. 

A touch of nostalgia was in the air with this edition of the Championships, offering the opportunity to see the French “Tello and Chingotto” again.

The emotional elevator

Dorian de Meyer: “For the record, we trained with Phil and Max all week. When the draw came out and we saw that we were going to play in the 8th, it wasn’t easy. But in the end, it turned out to be a monumental match.

Emotionally, it was intense. But I like playing these matches. That's why I play padel to live these moments.”

Thomas Vanbauce: “It’s a complete emotional rollercoaster. We lived the match to the fullest. And all those breaks in this second set… And then we made a serious mistake at 4/2 in the second set, since we apparently got the scores wrong. And this mistake would result in the break loss.

This match could have been decided by a mistake. But obviously no one saw it at the time.”

The fear that history will repeat itself

Thomas Vanbauce: “In our training sessions with Phil and Max, things were going a little more in our favor at the beginning. On the last day, it was much tighter, but I think there was also mental fatigue from playing each other. Out of 6 or 7 sets, we only lost one set.

For the record, last year during the French championships, we played Scatena / Guichard, we beat them in training and we lost in the official match. And I said to myself: here we go again!

I don't know if we were favourites. Especially since they managed to raise their level of play. I expected a big match and that's what happened.

Dorian de Meyer: “I think the second set is ours. We make a few mistakes. They hang on and here we are at a set all. We gave ourselves a scare anyway.”

Thomas Vanbauce: “We had a very strong reaction after losing the second set with Dorian. We took off. It feels good.”

A new De Meyer / Vanbauce association?

Dorian de Meyer: “a new association with Thomas, I think that the question does not arise in the sense that, at the moment, Thomas plays with Maxime Joris. And then, it is not a secret, this separation with Thomas affected me.

So I can't act as if nothing happened. There is a before, there is an after. I continue to manage it. It's not over. What I can say is that right now, I'm having a sick time.

There is an extremely strong story with Thomas.”

Without FFT regulation, no De Meyer / Vanbauce in 2024?

Thomas Vanbauce: “Yes, indeed. It’s a fact, without this FFT regulation which requires pairs to register from March, I think we wouldn’t have played together.

And for the moment, where we have strength compared to the other teams, we still played six and a half years together. And so, we find ourselves on the field. And for my part, to find Dorian on the field, it's very emotional.

And beyond that, it's very easy to play with him. We know each other inside out.

And for once, I know very well what he does. So, I think we have a bit of an advantage also because they don't play Philémon and Maxime together.

And I'm glad it's not over. Because we have a beautiful day ahead of us tomorrow. And it's not over.

Dorian de Meyer: “Max Forcin, I’ve played with him for several tournaments, so I know him very well. We’ll have a great match tomorrow.”

Franck Binisti

Franck Binisti discovered padel at the Club des Pyramides in 2009 in the Paris region. Since then, padel has been part of his life. You often see him touring France to cover major French padel events.

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