For the first time at Roland-Garros, an exhibition of padel-armchair, scheduled between the first men's semi-final and the second women's semi-final.

Four of the best French players in this discipline were on the track: Nicolas Vanlerberghe / Sébastien Husser-Walther on one side, Dorian Navarro / Laurent Giammartini on the other. In front of several thousand spectators, they disputed a super tie-break in ten points, commented on the microphone by the former tenniswomen Camille Pin.

Two rebounds allowed

This allowed the general public to discover the specificities of wheelchair play, where players are entitled to two rebounds but go up to the net less than able-bodied players. Note that the best players in the discipline play not only tournaments reserved for wheelchair players, but also open tournaments, where they have the right to associate with able-bodied players.

Sensations rarely felt

Sébastien Husser-Walther, one of the artisans of the bronze medal brought back last May from the first world championships padel-armchair, in Madrid, told us his impressions after leaving the legendary Chatrier court:  “We had an incredible experience today with this demo of padel-armchair on the Philippe-Chatrier court. These are sensations that I have rarely felt, with many people in the stands. This is what we dreamed of. We feel very small on such a huge court and we just can't wait to do this kind of demo again in the near future. We feel privileged to experience such moments. I would like to send a big thank you to the FFT, to the tournament director Arnaud Di Pasquale. We also had the opportunity to meet the president of the International Federation of padel Luigo Carraro. All this bodes well for a bright future for the padel-French armchair. We are still at the very beginning and yet we have already had the opportunity to experience a lot of great things over the past two years. We love it and we want more. »

We want more too!

After 40 years of tennis, Jérôme falls into the pot of padel in 2018. Since then, he thinks about it every morning while shaving… but never shaves pala in hand! Journalist in Alsace, he has no other ambition than to share his passion with you, whether you speak French, Italian, Spanish or English.

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