Padel Magazine regularly offers you columns on padel in Paraguay before the World Cup next November. This was the opportunity for your columnist Thomas Richou to meet a great man of Paraguayan padel: Hugo Bénitez, alias Camé or Sensei.

Cameo: A must-have personality

Camé is the diminutive Camérun in reference to the dark complexion of his skin and Sensei of course for the series Dragon Ball Z.

Sensei, in Japanese means "the one who was there before me, the one who guarantees a know-how, an experience, a technique ... "

And indeed if he does not run as before, Came has this experience, this know-how and this technique of Padel.

Present at all tournaments, he participates as a player, organizer, coach, referee. He moves to Asuncion, the capital, still goes to Encarnacion his hometown and then goes to Villa Rica.

It is everywhere where the little yellow ball bounces.

Cameo: The first president

He was president of FEPARPA (Paraguayan Federation of Padel) for the World Cup in Mexico in 2010.

“Paraguay has participated in all the worlds of Padel" he tells us proudly.

As a player, he set foot on the first pitches of Padel at the age of 15, in 1989, one year after the creation of the first land in Asuncion, “la Zanja” (the well).

Sport then moved to the big cities, Encarnacion and Ciudad Del Este.

Today, many lands are emerging and complement the complexes that already exist. There, we try to cover the land as much as possible for a simple reason:

"Soit, it's the hot and humid sun, or it's the rain ... " Came tells us.

3000 players on a hundred fields

And under the sometimes stifling sun of Paraguay, more than 3000 players hit the ball on more than a hundred grounds spread all over the country.

In Paraguay, to categorize the level of players, we have set up 7 categories: from the beginner category 7 (Septima) to the professional category 1 (primera)

Came trains the youngest. But he continues to compete. He won 4 tournaments of 2 (segunda) in 1992 and this year at 45 he continues to win tournaments of 3 (Tercera) sometimes with very young players: juniors like Santiago, to whom he transmits his love of sport, his sympathy and his advice.

Tireless, you will certainly meet him at the world may be as a referee as at the Fabrice Pastor Cup Asuncion.

Thomas Richou - Padel Magazine

Franck Binisti

Franck Binisti discovered padel at the Club des Pyramides in 2009 in the Paris region. Since then, padel has been part of his life. You often see him touring France to cover major French padel events.

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