Pairs of ladies, will they be able to compete in padel homologated gentlemen one day? A debate that comes up more and more in view of the few ladies tournaments offered since the beginning of the year. Obviously, we wanted to know if it was possible to do it and in what context.

Women with gentlemen, possible?

There are men's tournaments every week all over France. The gentlemen are lucky! For the best, there are P500 and P1000 almost every week. No problem so the gentlemen side. On the other hand, in the ladies, it's another matter, not only are there few tournaments in the ladies, but side tournaments P500 / P1000, there is almost nothing. It is difficult for the best French players to play in competition and improve.

However, it is necessary to relativize these figures. Firstly because among gentlemen, there are now almost 5.000 licensed for less than 1.000 licensed in the ladies. Then the gentlemen are very active. In the top 500, we see many players doing more than 10 tournaments over a year. For a good part, we even surpass the 20 tournaments and even 30 for the craziest!

Among the women, not only are there 5 times fewer license holders, but there are also a lot less players ready to do as many padel.

Is this a reason to leave this hundred or so players on the side?

Le padel lives exceptional hours and the FFT is already working on many cases. But it is important that the padel women can develop and it can go through the implementation of this regulation: Allow the top 100 girls (or 50) to participate in men's tournaments.

Today, we are in a vicious circle. There are few players, there are few tournaments. Balance sheet: We do not advance. And some players elsewhere play less or even disgust.

This solution is it possible?

YES. Other sports use this rule like squash. Why the padel would not do the same. But be careful, the set-up must be clear and the ladies play the game.

1. The girls who play at the men must take the risk of playing male pairs with a game sometimes less technical but more brutal. Which means that in the men, there are many blunders, sometimes with smashes that can slam an opponent.

2. We should allow this assimilation in the gentlemen that the top 50 in our opinion.

3. Find an algorithm to rank these girls in men according to their ranking ladies.

Ranking: The ladies ranking is not the same as the men's ranking. We could try to find an algorithm that would automatically transform a ranking ladies into a ranking gentlemen.

For example, :

  • the French 1 number could be the number 50 gentlemen
  • French 10 number: the 200e gentlemen.
  • French number 20: 400 gentlemen.
  • etc.

In squash, we are already doing this. We sometimes see girls playing in men's tournaments. Why not do it in girls?

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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