This weekend took place the first stage of the FFT Padel Tour, the P2000 from Valenciennes. We were able to see the best French players of the moment, with the victories of Bergeron / Blanqué for the men, and Godallier / Martin for the women. In this article, we will analyze the positive and negative points of the arrival of this new circuit.

The positive points of the P2000:

First of all, in the advantages of this new category of tournament is that it allows to regroup the best French pairs on the same tournament. For example, in Valenciennes, we could see or discover the two best French pairs in the final: Tison / Maiget and Bergeron / Blanqué. What was missing on the last P1000 where the French who train in Spain did not come. The tournaments lacked a little flavor, because we do not see at that time a pair that can compete against the Parisian pair Tison / Maigret.

In addition, one of the objectives and will of the FFT through the establishment of this new category of tournaments is to bring in foreign players (mainly Spanish). Indeed, the leaders in charge of padel at the FFT wants the French circuit to become international, as when they introduced the P1000 a few years ago. It's an ambitious goal, and we saw some Spanish faces in this first edition.

By introducing these P2000, the FFT disengages P1000 top players. An advantage for other players, who came, and lost their first round by falling very often on a seed. P1000 will become more accessible for players who do not necessarily target the top 100 or 50. Moreover, we can see that for a small year, the P1000 have already become much more accessible thus disturbing the order of rankings.

Finally, the great news of this new elite circuit is to create stages in the heart of cities to make people discover the padel to the general public, and do as in certain stages of the World Padel Tour. This decision allows the organizers to better promote advertising space for sponsors in particular.

We had the right to a very active communication team during the tournament. Many top-notch tennis tournaments would have liked to have had half that visibility all weekend. So it's a chance for the padel to have this circuit.

The negative points of these P2000s:

The prize money for players may not be up to par. A P250 is between € 250 and € 499, a P500 between € 500 and € 999, and the P1000 is at least € 1000. But the P2000 is not at least 2000 €, but more than 1500 €. What is not in the logic established by the FFT since the establishment of the approved tournaments. Many players and stakeholders in the padel were also astonished at this strangeness in the financial allocations.

The other black point: Stages of this new elite circuit take place at the same time as the WPT tournaments. The best French players participate in the WPT circuit and will therefore have to make a choice between France and Spain. The French players concerned have also already expressed their dissatisfaction, but the choice is already costly for the majority of them: They are giving their all to the World Padel Tour and therefore they should favor the pro circuit. Direct consequence: it could partially distort the French ranking, since the best pairs will not always be present. Damage to the players, damage to the organization, damage to the public.

Finally, during the presentation of this new circuit, the FFT announced to the public, the world during these great events. Certainly there is a very good communication around the event and during the event. There is a certain work ... On the other hand for these stages which take place in clubs of padel, the FFT should succeed in bringing in the licensees / tennis clubs of the region during these beautiful stages and that at this level, it makes the difference with a padel “Classic” especially when it succeeds in bringing in the cream of padel French. The momentum had to be started. It is done. Now we need more people at all costs at least for the semi-finals and finals. It is important for the image of our sport.

We obviously don't worry about the events in the city center. The sites chosen by the FFT are exceptional. There is nothing like bringing new players into the padel.

In conclusion, the results are obviously very positive, especially since this was the first stage of the first edition ... We had the right to very good communication from the FFT, with a very active communication team. The players gave us a great show at 4PADEL Valenciennes. But now we need the public and this is mainly where the FFT is expected on its next steps.

Alexis Dutour

Alexis Dutour is passionate about padel. With his training in communication and marketing, he puts his skills at the service of padel to offer us articles that are always very interesting.

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