For this second stage of the Masters of Padel Lyonnais disputed at Padel Central Lyon (Padel club de Lyon) we had to push the walls to welcome all the participants wishing to do battle! During 3 days, no less than 32 pairs of men and 10 women from Grenoble, Nice, Cannes, Marseille or Perpignan, who fought for the title. The surprise victories of Pier Gauthier / Laurent Boulade and Virginie Pironneau / Géraldine Sorel bear witness to a certain spirit of revenge!

Very nice victories of Virginie Pironneau / Géraldine Sorel

For the ladies first of all, the unprecedented but oh so effective association of Virginie Pironneau / Geraldine Sorel was right in the unchallenged reign of the Lyonnaise events of the French champions Laura Clergue / Audrey Casanova. But we do not beat such champions so easily, it will have been necessary to overcome the loss of the first set and wait for the 4th match point during the super tie break to snatch the victory (4-6 6-3 11-10). Newly licensed at Padel Club de lyon, Virginie Pironneau thus proves that playing "at home" is of particular importance even at Padel ! Géraldine Sorel, for her part, remained on two defeats in the final against these same opponents on these tracks, it was too much!

During the previous rounds, these two pairs will have been able to measure all the progress made by the local competitors, Alix Collombon / Jessica Ginier in the lead. These last defeats only in the semi-finals by the champions of France after a good fight, obviously have a bright future in this sport. The adaptation of their great tennis qualities to the Padel is still ongoing but their association already has little equivalent in the region. And it is not Line Meites and her new partner Carine Vidal, beaten for third place who will say the opposite!

Pier Gauthier / Laurent Boulade as a warrior

In men, given the density of the plateau, winners of one of the 8 hens qualifying to join the 8 first seeds in the final table was already a great achievement. The main victims of this first round are the 2015 champions of the Dauphiné region, Jean Charles Colas-Roy / Alexandre Perilhon. The latter will console on Sunday by winning the table for the 17th place against Jerome Xambeu / Fabien Laguna.

From the round of 16, the 4 seed (Arnaud Taboni / Romain Dubost-Chavrier), 5 (Clément Arcangeli / Olivier Chaix) and 8 (Laurent Bériard / ArnaudChaffanjon) bite the dust before the last day of competition.

In the quarterfinals, the top of the table offers Pier Gauthier / Laurent Boulade to erase their clear defeat in the final of the first leg of this series of tournaments 7 days earlier in Chassieu. They do not miss this opportunity and prematurely eliminate the seed 2 number of the table (Justin Lopes / François Authier) 9 games to 5 and then spin quite easily in the final. Without taking anything away from the good performance of their executioners David Miotto / Jean Yves Levrat, the champions of Lyon 2015 Serge Reisinger / Simon Desliens are eliminated after a poor performance.

At the bottom of the table, Pierre Etienne Morillon / Johan Bergeron avoid the pitfall match in the quarterfinals against Lionel Vinciguerra / Sébastien Corbelli and respect their rank in half against the last remaining qualified in the race Bertrand Contzler / Olivier Carlier.

The final was spectacular and contested, sometimes even reaching a level of play rarely seen in Padel Central Lyon. Supported by a large audience, the first set was brilliantly won by Morillon / Bergeron (6-4). In the second, Boulade / Gauthier raised the tone and equalized (6-1). The super tie-break, kind of toss or tails, one of the fantasies of the game formats imposed by the FFT, will take your breath away. Each pair will save match points before the coin falls to the south side to offer Boulade / Gauthier a first tournament victory. For Morillon / Bergeron after a necessary period of adaptation, this final raises some doubts that their change of side of play had aroused.

With a victory and a defeat in the final to their credit, qualifying for the finals in October seems almost acquired for Boulade / Gauthier.

For everyone else, the next stop at the Rillieux club from May 20 to June 19 will be decisive!

Jérôme Bécasset - Padel Magazine

Jerome Becasset

Jérôme Béasset is the Paquito Navarro of the team Padel Magazine. Offensive on all subjects of the world of padel, he returns to many subjects with an always discerning eye.

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