Jo-Wilfried Tsonga: “Au Padel, we have fun right away unlike tennis ”| Padel Magazine

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga is deeply into tennis. But he keeps an eye on the padel. A sport that appeals to him even if for the moment he remains 100% in tennis. Antoine Sarroste met him at Tsonga Camp (located at the Tennis Club de Lyon) to obviously talk padel !

Tsonga Camp at the Tennis Club de Lyon, what is it?

First of all, it started with an idea with friends. We said to ourselves what we could do for young people and that we would have loved to do. Then came the idea of the Tsonga Camp: bring together young people of different ages (girls / boys) and give them an intense week of tennis with lots of cool moments, fun, good humor with music where they do a bit of competition too. I find the mixture to be very important and to work very well.

Do young people play padel during this stage ?

No, unfortunately, there is no adapted / junior rackets available at the club.

When did you discover the Padel ? Your first impression?

I discovered the padel for the first time years ago when I was 12. It wasn't exactly the padel today. It was a padel that we were playing at Bressuire. We played on a carpet on it with our tennis rackets and without the walls. We had a good time. It was a kind of mini-tennis where we used to play in the tennis courts. When we rediscovered that a few years ago, we still got hold of it. When I say "we", it's the tennis family. We all got hooked on this game because it's fun and you have the racket in your hand very easily. It is quite simple unlike tennis which is very technical at the start even if then tennis becomes a very fun sport. While the padel, it's still a little more fun and friendly. We get to have a lot of fun very quickly.

We see some players sometimes playing padel like Gaël Monfils and you?

No, I don't play a lot for the simple reason that I already play tennis, I left a lot of feathers there and therefore I try to preserve myself as much as possible for tennis. So I don't play it a lot and so far I've never played it regularly.

You see the padel expand everywhere?

For me the padel begins to have a strong presence in the United States. It is obviously very present in Spain and South America. In France, we are starting to get started. Where I saw the potential of padel it is through the United States because they are very good at selling dreams. And so they sell padel with music inside, light shows: the American show what. I found it innovative to combine this new sport with show, to arrive in a world a little less formal than, for us, tennis, it was more relaxed and we have more fun.

What is your take on the evolution of padel for 5 years in France?

I think it has changed a lot. People who want to create new infrastructures, especially in tennis, cannot imagine it without tennis courts. padel now. I think that even for young people, for certain sensations it is good for tennis. I think we can learn, first, to padel and then after moving on to tennis, it's a kind of mini-tennis for the youngest.

Le padel can it compete with tennis? Especially within tennis clubs?

No, I don't think the padel can compete with tennis because tennis is simply tennis. There is a feeling of ball in the racket that we do not have with the padel. The racket padel remains a full carbon racquet and there is a feeling in the racquet which is very nice but which will never be as good as with a string or possibly a natural string, a gut.

Is this a good development tool for tennis clubs?

Yes, there you have it, it's a good development tool for tennis clubs. I think it will work. There could very well be as many tennis players as there are padel.

Like in Spain?

Yes, I think that it is something that can work but the tennis will remain the tennis that is to say that it will remain nevertheless, for me, already the fact that it is a sport even more difficult to see even more picky on the technique, the sensations. That's it, we will not change. It's as if tomorrow, we invented a new golf, it will never be as good as with his iron and hard balls.