This Sunday was synonymous with P500 in Saint-Louis, in southern Alsace. A stone's throw from the Swiss and German borders, sixteen teams competed for the trophy on the three indoor tracks of the 4Padel .

Generally dominating in the Alsatian P500s, but also those of Montbéliard (Doubs), the Mulhousiens Teri Groll (71st Frenchman) and Diego Garcia (71st) were largely favorites on paper against less well-ranked pairs, with less nourished prize lists.

The seeded 1 challenged

But from their first match, in the quarter-finals, the Groll / Garcia pair was more than challenged by two players ranked only 396th and 873rd: the Strasbourg players Guillaume Olivier and Clément Wolff, two good tennis players, bravely played their luck, not yielding only 7/6 7/6, before counting a break in advance in the second set.

The semi-final was less disputed for the seeded 1, facing the surprise pair of this first P500 of the year in the Haut-Rhin: despite their size, Jonathan Ortschitt (1306th) and Martin Schmuda (1913th) did not didn't make the weight. But they made up for it by winning the match for 3rd place against Charles Georg (293rd) and Stéphane Jacky (445th).

In the final, Groll / Garcia found the seed 2, made up of Tiphaine Holderbach (151st) and the giant Julien Motz (558th, 2,04m). And the latter, despite a lower ranking, started the match better, winning the first set with a score of 6/3. The Mulhousiens reacted to the second, won 6/3, before tightening the game at the end of the match and concluding with another 6/3.

Back in the top 50?

A victory that will allow these two tennis players who play very little padel to get closer to their best ranking: Garcia peaked at 48th place and Groll was 32nd in France in 2021, the day after his quarter-final at the French championships, after a memorable “perf” in 1/8th!

The tournament standings:

  1. Groll / Garcia
  2. Holderbach / Motz
  3. Ortschitt / Schmuda
  4. Georg / Jacky
  5. Oliver / Wolff
  6. Rappeneau / Arnoux
  7. Seyller / Gruber
  8. Ohlmann / Albert
  9. Belzung / Schloesslin
  10. Bourara / Oueslati

After 40 years of tennis, Jérôme falls into the pot of padel in 2018. Since then, he thinks about it every morning while shaving… but never shaves pala in hand! Journalist in Alsace, he has no other ambition than to share his passion with you, whether you speak French, Italian, Spanish or English.

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