In view of the nominations to join the France team of padel, we wanted to introduce you to one of the best right-wing players in France: Kevin Fouquet.

Considered already an “old” when he was only 25 years old, you will understand that the padel has been a part of his life for over a decade.

Passionate and serious are certainly the words that best suit him. The azurien, convened for the internship of padel Team France Padel, tells us everything!

Padel Magazine - Kevin, the padel and you, can we say that it has been running in your veins for a very long time?

Kevin Fouquet - I'm 25 years old and I've been playing football for 15 years now. padel. So indeed, I believe that the padel has been totally part of my life for a very long time. During all these years, I played tournaments on the French circuit long before it belonged to the FFT by being regularly in the 10 or 5 best French players. I also had the chance to do three world junior championships, my best memories, (2 in Spain and one in Brazil) and also two senior world championships in Calgary and Cancun.

On the professional side, I am also in the padel since I worked and then managed Real Real Estate in recent years Padel Club in Sophia-Antipolis, club created by Robin Haziza and Jérémy Ritz.

Today I will take over the management of a new club padel which is still being set up in the south of France, the HUB PADEL, which will open in 1 month if all goes well. I hope to have the opportunity to talk about it in detail later if you want to 🙂

How come you fell so early in the padel ?

I fell into the padel when I was 10 years old in my father's tennis club in Sant'estello (Editor's note. Patrick Fouquet, current coach of the France team of padel).

He had discovered the padel in Spain on vacation. He then immediately wanted to put a court in his club. Me, I was part of a group of 7-8 young people who trained in tennis. We tried the padel and from there, we almost all left tennis to get down to padel and train. It was a lot more fun for us and we had 10 times more fun together playing padel than training tennis. Suddenly the whole club also started to padel, and we started traveling very early on to tournaments all over France (mainly in the south at the time) with the club van, it was great for us.

Tennis hasn't had a big influence on your padel current?

I played a year and a half of tennis from 9 years old until 10-11 years old, so I don't really have a tennis background. In addition to that I was not good at all, I must have been 30/3 at the most so it didn't help me too much… But I would have liked to play a little more anyway to have a more solid foundation . So I did that padel from my 10-11 years old until today.

Do you see differences in the game since these last 15 years?

Yes there is a big difference, the padel has developed spectacularly over the past 3 years throughout France and continues to develop. We have more and more fields every year, new clubs which have opened everywhere and which work for the reputation of the padelis great for the development of sport. All this means that there are more and more players who have become padel and in particular players who have been or are still very good at tennis for the competition part, who progress very quickly and who are competitive immediately.

Suddenly the general level has increased. There are no longer easy matches in tournaments. From 8nd  final everything is hooked. We also have a lot more tournaments that are organized, better organized with the National Padel Cup, The My Padel Turn again on Head Padel Open and better relayed with Padel Magazine . For players it is very pleasant and it also allows enthusiasts to padel to follow the results and the news.

Do you think you can be part of the list of 12 players selected in the Team Padel France ?

Very difficult to answer. I am already one of those invited for the internship padel, which is a good thing. But for me there are currently 3 pairs which are favorite by their results and / or their history (Blanqué / Bergeron; Tison / Maigret; Haziza / Scatena).

Then there are between 15 and 20 players who can fight for the remaining 2 places. So it's not going to be a big deal until the last moment. There's also a whole season to go so there can be a lot of surprises between now and then. In any case nothing is played and it will be very complicated.

Your favorite shot?

My favorite and most confident shots are the target smash (or bandeja for the Spanish). As I am small, it will surprise no one… I have to make 5000 smashes per game. And I will also say the overall game with the windows.

The shot you like the least?

The smash hit to finish, I take out no ball it's scary. My favorite position: on the right because of my lack of power, even though I started playing on the left when I was younger and I like to play it from time to time. I could perhaps play on the left but with a big left-hander, that would be the only solution ...

For these French championships of padel, who will you play with?

I'm going to play with Maxime Moreau

Your blow of mouth

It's not really a rant, but just a desire with the development to come. I would like the padel keeps its mentality simple with what makes its strength, that is to say a friendly atmosphere where people do not take the lead and where everyone gets together after a game or a match over a drink, like it was the case in tennis before.

Most important in the padel it's post-game beer. And not that people bring a bit of the mentality that we see in current tennis where players tend to believe themselves to be stronger than others, to talk about opponents and where they play and go. Sport is simple, if you are stronger you have to demonstrate it on the field, this is where you have to fight and be competitive after it's over, it's no longer worth talking.

You must have beautiful anecdotes

It's not the funniest story of the year, but it's a little anecdote. It was in 2005 in Badajoz in Spain, we went to do the junior world championships with the French team that lasted on 1 week.

All the selections were gathered in the same hotel. On the night of the last day of the competition, all the teams and all the young people had decided to go out in town to celebrate. After staying in a few pubs, the selections were directed to a nightclub: problem everyone was not old enough to go home which I had because 13 years (and a certain Nicolas Trancart champion of France - 14ans), plus a bouncer at the entrance.

But the other players on the team absolutely wanted us to come in and we weren't too against it. So I, who was 1,20m tall, decided to put myself between 2 teammates over 1,90m, Julien Weiler and Laurent Belloti. As the tail moved forward the 2 stuck together so that I wouldn't be seen. Arrived in front of the bouncer and completely crushed, he begins to look at the head of Julien then of Laurent and lets us pass without seeing me, the perfect shot. Suddenly everyone was able to come home and we continued the evening with all the selections. Note that Nicolas had also entered but we do not know how ...

And for the record, there was also during this world championship already a certain Paquito Navarro, and 2 others that we know better in France Jorge De Benito and Fermin Ferreyra. But we will not say what they did that night to preserve their career ...

Interview by Franck Binisti

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.