3rd French player in the ranking of World Padel Tour, Melissa Martin engaged in Lorenzo Lecci Lopez on the development of padel in France and she give us her opinion and his suggestions on how to see this sport continue to grow.

  • Do you think that FFT should invest more in padel to make it grow?

I think that the FFT has already started its investments in the padel in order to make it grow since 2019 thanks to the creation of the circuit FFT Padel Tour.

However, there is obviously still a lot to put in place, particularly in the help they could bring to the club in order to develop them as well as in the training of teachers of padel. But they have already started to reflect on these subjects.

There are a lot of things, it is a real building site being a very recent sport. In the longer term, the FFT should support private clubs which are real enthusiasts of padel and are much more active clubs in terms of organizing tournaments or events in general than tennis clubs which themselves benefit from financial aid from the FFT and the city in the construction of tennis courts. padel.

Private clubs in general should only count on their private and personal investments.

  • How can FFT use the emergence of padel as an opportunity to boost the number of tennis licensees?

 The FFT has every interest in developing the competition of padel because it is only the players participating in the competitions who must be licensed. All leisure players from padel do not need it when registering for a club. For this it would therefore be advantageous to support clubs in the organization of tournaments.

  • Le padel can it be considered as a technical complement to tennis?

Personally I worked in a club of padel which depended on a tennis academy, the Mouratoglou academy. So I was able to see and discuss with many professional players or younger players from the academy, but also with teachers and coaches.

Almost without exception, all told me about their interest in playing the game. padel in order to work on the volley, reactivity, the little footwork, or even patience and therefore the mind. So yes I think it can be considered a good technical supplement.

  • According to you, the padel should he leave the tutelage of the FFT?

No I don't think so at the moment. The padel has really become known much more since he came under the tutelage of the FFT.

I think that without the FFT, the padel would certainly take longer to develop.

Today the FFT allows the padel to benefit from greater visibility as well as from the financial aid which the clubs need even if for the moment the private clubs do not benefit from it but only the tennis clubs.

The FFT has also started to get involved with us professional players thanks to financial aid, an elected official in charge only of padel high level and therefore allowing us to have a certain recognition as a high level player in France. Which is officially impossible not being an Olympic sport… So without the FFT we could only benefit from the help of private sponsors.

  • FFT and private clubs, same fight?

We hope ! The clubs need more support from the FFT, these private structures need the padel is better known in order to attract more public to have a faster profitability than today. Because all private clubs take great financial risks. And therefore for more visibility of the padel sport should begin to be broadcast on television channels. It would be a real first and big step. It should also be an Olympic sport, but we know that it will not be until at least 2028 ...

  • Le padel goes first through the amateur world?

 I will speak knowingly because I live in Spain. The amateur world here would not exist without the padel professional… Here people play padel because they know the padel, because they watch it on television, because they admire professional players.

Without them there would be no padel… So yes basically in France the clubs are not stimulated enough by real teachers of padel whereas here each club generally has one teacher per field. But here all the amateurs love the competition whatever the level, they have tournaments organized throughout the week, many matches by team. And that's what works.

  • What do you think would be the best way to develop the padel in France ?

Develop the padel hand in hand with the tennis federation.

From his names, we can guess his Spanish and Italian origins. Lorenzo is a multilingual passionate about sports: journalism by vocation and events by worship are his two legs. He is the international gentleman of Padel Magazine. You will often see it on the various international competitions, but also on the major French events. @eyeofpadel on Instagram to see his best photos of padel !

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