Mika Grenier, owner of Réunion Padel Club, shares with us his journey in the world of padel, tells us about the explosive growth of padel in Reunion, returns to the big tournament taking place on the Island this weekend, and reveals his future ambitions to us, including the objective of organizing a FIP tournament.

A boom in padel on the island

"I started to Padel Horizon eight years ago, and I played for two months before leaving for Reunion. I didn't play much, but I really discovered the sport.

In Reunion, I set up a first club five years ago, and then I created Réunion Padel Club. Recently we just added a field – we went from three tracks to four – and in terms of teachers we went from two teachers at the beginning to five now! We have a lot of requests, a lot of people and the club is constantly evolving in terms of reservations and members. 

Meeting-Padel-Club-tracks

Covid was a complicated time for us with the 18/19 p.m. curfew and in terms of weather conditions, it's true that the cyclones scare us a little, but for the moment we're knocking on wood because We didn't have any major material damage unlike other clubs. These are things that can be a little stressful as a manager because everything can stop overnight.

Even if there is insurance, by the time they take care of the damage there is a period of six months without having land…”

A month of waiting to reserve a lead!

“At La Réunion, I would say that it has been in complete explosion for two years, and despite the fact that there are plenty of clubs opening nearby, we have even more requests. The more clubs there are, the more players there are. Registrations for tournaments open and an hour later there are no more places. To reserve a track with us, it's a month's wait for the evening at peak time. We are having difficulty meeting all the demand. 

Clubhouse-Reunion-Padel-Club

Furthermore, I find that the soft belly of padel Reunion Island is very condensed and stronger than in mainland France. Here it is very complicated to win a P100 or a P250 because it is often the same players who participate and there is a high density of players for very few tournaments.

In France there can be lots of tournaments at the same time and the players are spread out across all the different competitions. In Reunion when there is a P250, there is only one on the Island which means that we will find all the best in the same tournament. I find that this soft belly of padel Réunion player plays very well, and the top 10 players from Réunion play between the Top 50 and the Top 100 French.”

€6 in prize money for the Tire Cash Padel Open !

“I don't know if I should say it, but in fact we were refused our P1000, because the FFT no longer wants us to do two consecutive P1000s at Reunion. According to them, when we bring in players, it encourages the race for points. Which I find a bit stupid, I will say the word, because there are P1000s every weekend in France and the players who win the tournament do not necessarily need to win a P1000 to win points.

Since we didn't have that tournament, with the team, we thought about doing something interesting and we said to ourselves that we would have a tournament with a nice prize money, the highest in France. for a national tournament. We wanted to do a qualifying phase of P500 to attract the locals, because if we had only had a €6 tournament, we would not have had the soft stomach of the Reunion Islanders, who would not have any money to win since they won't go through with it. We said to ourselves that a P000 could serve as a qualification and that was validated by the League. We want to show that the Federation is wrong in preventing us from making a P500.”

Reunion Island Padel Club: discover the Pneu Cash tables Padel Open!

And the club does not intend to stop there!

“In the medium term, we have the idea of ​​organizing a FIP. It would really be one of our dreams for the club. Then the problem of the referee arises, because here, there is no international referee.

In the short term, we would like, for next season, to obtain this P1000 which we did not have this year, and put €10 in prize money, knowing that our sponsor would agree to renew if things go well on Sunday.”

So fingers crossed!

Dorian Massy

New follower of padel, I am fascinated by this dynamic sport which combines strategy and agility. I find in the padel a new passion to explore and share with you on Padel Magazine.

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