The French Champion of padel in title, Johan Bergeron looks back on his adventure in Spain, his expectations, his ambitions, his relations with his partner and friend Bastien Blanqué. “Jo” can no longer backtrack, he goes under the scalp of Padel Magazine. But nothing can stop him, the player on the right, when we know that he won with Bastien 10 P1000 in 10 months, the title of French champion of padel and the number 1 position in France, and all this in 2017.
Only since 4 years ....
I start on padel 4 years ago. All this is linked to the new work of Pierre-Etienne Morillon at Head. THE padel was in the process of launching but we were still far from what we are currently experiencing in France and in Europe.
Pierre-Etienne then discovered this sport and we decided to test ourselves at padel at the Tennis Club d'Ecully (where there is a padel)… And there, it is the immediate crush and we start to make tournaments.
The first will be in Marseille where we even manage to win a match! This is the start of our adventure since then we will string together many tournaments padel especially in Lyon which we won.
Half-volleyed and smashed ...
At high speed V ...
There are now tournaments (from P100 to P1000) every weekend, tracks that are set up every week… The French Tennis Federation which manages the padel, was even obliged to make regulations for the P1000 tournaments, that is to say!
But despite the reports on TF1, BFM and the Sport Reporter on Canal +, I think that there is still a lot to do to promote this sport more.
A primordial competition in France team
It is very important that there is strong competition to be part of the France team. Thanks to that, the level of this team will go up to get closer to the best teams in the world!
A training padel professional
Every morning we have training with Ramiro Choya, followed by an individual physical training with Borja (one of the best physical trainers in Madrid).
Then about 3x a week we add a training part in the afternoon.
My favorite shots
I have 2 🙂
The first is necessarily the long line smash. I think this is the hit where I enjoy myself the most. I just have to be careful not to abuse it in positions that do not allow me to do it, but hey ... it's good to succeed!
The 2ème and it will be a dedication to my friend Max Moreau galley trying to do it, it is the amortized volley in reverse that goes out the door. I take this interview to propose to Max a little lesson on this one so that he can succeed at least 1 on the 15 he tries in match 🙂
Bastien Blanqué, my "boy" for France
I will obviously play with Bastien Blanqué with the aim of keeping our title of Champions of France!
Heart stroke…
We still have a lot to do
I'll tell you a story that shows that we still have a lot to do on the media.
With Bastien, we were on the plane to go to a tournament in Toulouse, it was hot so we were in shorts, t-shirt and our padel. Our neighbor chats with us and learns about our sport. So we are talking about tournaments, our training in Madrid etc. It lasts about fifteen minutes where she really cares about us. Until that moment when she ruined everything…. She dared to ask us this question:
But where do you train because there is no water in Madrid?
Interview by 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.