European Games: course and results of the French team

The French team of padel returns without a medal from the Polish tour for these European Games, which for the first time included padel. This result is far from the initial ambitions of France, which has undoubtedly sometimes suffered from its unfavorable international ranking, forcing it to face the top seeds very quickly.

Gentlemen: costly irregularities

Adrien Maigret/Benjamin Tison (seed 4) and Jérémy Scatena/Thomas Leygue (seed 3) were among the favorites of the competition. Ideally, they were to avoid the Spanish pairings that eventually faced each other in the final.

The Maigret/Tison pair had an interesting picture. In the first round, she faced an Estonian pair (Sim Tuus/Erko Nigula). Benjamin and Adrien got a good 6/2 6/2 victory to start the competition against opponents undoubtedly of a lower level.

In their second match, the Polish pair (Lipinski/Naduk) surprised by the level of play offered, but the French pair remained serious and won the match 7/6 6/4. A sometimes uneven performance, but which was good preparation before the long-awaited quarter-final match against the Portuguese pair, Miguel Oliveira / Afonso Fazendeiro.

The captain of the French team, Pablo Ayma, was clear: despite the quality of the Portuguese, France were the favourites. The latter had made a very solid run to reach the quarter-finals, beating Austria and Ireland with only 2 games lost before the quarter-finals.

The rest is unfortunately known: France lost both tie-breaks against Portugal, despite many opportunities in this match to make the difference earlier. It's a match that leaves regrets.

As for the seeded 3, Scatena / Leygue, their table promised to be complicated due to sometimes misleading international rankings. Indeed, the French pair found themselves in a difficult part of the table. The French failed in the first round against the Swedish pair Olson / Andersson in 3 sets (7/6 4/6 6/3). A tournament to forget for French players.

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Ladies: the French paid for their poor ranking

As for the ladies, Charlotte Soubrié and Carla Touly were victims of a ruthless draw. They had to face in the first round the seeded 2 of the table, the Spaniards, Noa Canovas and Araceli Martinez who will lose in the semi-final against the winners (Orsi and Marchetti). They certainly deserved to go further, but this is the disadvantage of having few international points: we run the risk of facing experienced pairs from the first rounds.

Ginier pothier France European Games padel

The Ginier / Pothier pair achieved a very impressive competition. They narrowly beat the number 7 seed in the table, the Portuguese pair Dos Santos / Fernandes, in three sets (7/5, 4/6, 6/2), before going on to face the Swedish pair Lister / Soleymani (7/5, 7/6). Against the number 1 seeds, the French women came close to tipping the balance in their favor, finally losing in the quarter-finals in three sets 6/3, 6/7, 6/3. Lucile Pothier and Jessica Ginier can be proud of their journey, because they were able to stand up to the finalists of the Women's Open. Admittedly, the disappointment is there, but they have significant room for improvement.

Corrigendum – clarifications: Les Bleues came 7th at the last World Cup. The nations are ranked at the European Games according to this ranking. And to know the pair 1 and 2 of each country, there is a draw.

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Mixed: Martinez / Gala does damage to the French

The draw was indeed very difficult for the Tison / Ginier pair, who had to face the number 2 seed in the draw, the Spanish pair Martinez / Gala, in the first round. However, the French duo was on the verge of creating a surprise and bringing down the Spaniards in the first round, only losing after a close match in three sets (3/6, 7/6, 6 /4). Despite this defeat, they showed that they were able to compete with the best, which is very promising for the future.

Despite a difficult journey, the Pothier / Leygue pair demonstrated a good level of play during the 2023 European Games. They won great victories against the Belgian pair Wyckaert / Coene as well as against Deus / Vilela.

Nevertheless, despite their fighting spirit, Pothier / Leygue failed to reach the final. Indeed, she had to bow in the semi-final against the number 1 seed, the Spanish pair Canovas / Santigosa. She then met another pair from Spain, who had previously eliminated Tison/Ginier, and lost once again.

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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.