A difficult week for the French team, which finished in a frustrating seventh place. However, Robin Haziza remembers the commitment and cohesion of his players, with the ambition of using this experience for the next international competitions.

After an intense week in Qatar, marked by ups and downs for the French women's team, Robin Haziza, tries to take stock.

“A 7th place with a bitter taste”

“I am proud of this team, because I am the one who selected it. We had decided to start again with the same players who had won the bronze medal in the last European Championships, four months ago. They haven't changed: they remain united, supportive, friendly, and they gave their all. Even if this seventh place is a great disappointment, a bitter taste persists. It is the same place as two years ago in the World's Championships from Dubai, while we had the ambition to do much better, especially after the recent European Championships which had gone well.”

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“A brutal reversal against Portugal”

“Strategically, it is difficult to analyze in the heat of the moment, but perhaps we missed two or three key points. To summarize the scenario, we faced the Portugal in the quarter-finals after a successful group stage, where we won all our games 3-0 and rotated the team. Everything was going perfectly. In this decisive match against Portugal, as had been the case in the European Championships, we lead 6-2, 3-1, with a 4-1 lead and several break chances, especially in the third set. Unfortunately, the match turned after a fierce battle between the four players. It's a brutal reversal, because if we had beaten Portugal, we would have faced Spain in the semi-finals, with a chance of playing for the bronze medal today.”

We find ourselves in the “dark” part of this championship

“Instead, we find ourselves on the other side, in the 'dark' part of this championship. The next morning, very early, we already had to prepare a new line-up. The team had taken a big hit to morale, and the players were tired. We can ask ourselves questions about our choice of line-up against Sweden, because there too, we lost in a decisive match after a big fight in the first two games. Of course, there will be questions to ask, but once again, if we had scored five more points against Portugal, this match would have tipped in our favor. That is also the harsh law of sport: regrets, yes, but also lessons to be learned.”

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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