Yannick Ferret, Deputy Director of the Nice Lawn Tennis Club (NLTC) tells us about the story of the Nice Lawn Tennis Club in the middle of padel for many years now.

Photos of the club HERE.

1 / The Nice Lauwn Tennis Club is one of the former clubs of padel in France…

Indeed, the padel is not a new activity since it has been present in our structure for more than 10 years.

The Nice Lawn Tennis Club was even the first club in the region to develop the padel as part of a partnership with Nallé Grinda. Very good player of padel and in love with this sport, he pushed to install 2 courts at Nice LTC. Rachid Boudni was at the helm in the club to boost the activity.

2 / Where are we now?

The activity padel gradually fell. It was not our priority especially since Nallé Grinda had left the boat. Besides, no one had really taken over. It's a sport that needs to be taken care of. To play a match, you need 4 players. The user-friendly side attracts a lot, but if no one manages, the padel cannot develop. And that's what happened a little bit in our club. There was no real desire for development.

But today, things have really changed.

First of all these 2 renovated lots. The club decided to invest in lighting, new carpets and beautification of the site. The grounds were in dire need of updating. A reception has also been set up. We needed a friendly space dedicated to padel, it's done.

3 / Concretely, how does it manifest your ambitions in the padel ?

We will inaugurate the renovated site in September 2016.

We have a referent, it is Jean-Jacques Martinez, a regular at padel Spanish. He will take care of the search for partners, activities and teaching.

The president, Bernard Leydet, the directors and the General Manager, Pierre Albuixech, now have the firm desire to get involved in the adventure. padel. Investments to renovate land is only the first step.

The idea of ​​at least 2 additional terrains is in the minds.

Remember that the club has 18 tennis courts, a fitness / bodybuilding room; alongside tennis, the PADEL will become a flagship activity of the club. Jean-Jacques' skills will allow him to develop all the teaching, animation and competition aspects.

The club hosting the training for the state tennis diploma - for which I am the manager - the idea would now be to extend this tennis training to padel. The machine is already on the way since we are integrating a module dedicated to padel for future state graduates

Interviewed 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.

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