In France, the French Tennis Federation has updated its Competition Guide for 2021 by listing and specifying the types of competitions and the process for participating.

Types of competitions

There are several types of competitions in Padel :

1) The French Senior Championships in pairs:
● a French Seniors Ladies Championship
● a French Seniors Men's Championship

2) The Seniors league championships, in pairs, qualifiers for the French championships

3) The senior departmental championships in pairs, qualifiers for the regional championships

4) the French youth inter-league team championships:

● a French inter-league young boys championship: each team is made up of 3 pairs U14, U16 and U18
● a French inter-league young girls' championship: each team is made up of 3 pairs U14, U16 and U18

5) Regional and / or departmental senior championships plus in pairs

6) Tournaments organized by the FFT, leagues, departmental committees and clubs.
There are several categories of tournaments, depending on the points and / or the prize money distributed: P 25, P 100, P 250, P 500, P 1000 and P 2000 - Cf. Tournaments and points scales

7) Team championships organized by certain leagues or committees: each league or committee issues its own regulations (there are no French interclub team championships in 2021)

Process to participate

To be able to participate in the FFT competitions of Padel, it is necessary :

- Be an FFT licensee for the current vintage: 'Club' or 'Web' license bearing the mention "competition authorized", on the registration deadline set by the organizer

- Be part of the age category of the event concerned. The age category of a player is calculated by subtracting the vintage of the sporting year from his year of birth. Example: for the sporting year 2021, which starts on 01/09/2020 and ends on 31/08/2021, a competitor “45 years and over” was born in 1976 or before.

Today there are seven age categories: 11/12 years old, 13/14 years old, 15/16 years old, 17/18 years old, Senior, 45 years old and over, 55 years old and over (as a reminder, a player from the 10 years and under cannot participate in an FFT competition).

In addition, some events select pairs for the Ranking, and some men's tournaments allow the participation of players according to certain rules (Cf. Chapters "The Tournament Specifications" and "The Ranking")

The player (if not specified: mean player) must present to the Referee Padel (JAP), the day of his arrival:

  • an official ID with photograph
  • his FFT license certificate for the current sporting year
Franck Binisti

Franck Binisti discovers the padel at the Club des Pyramides in 2009 in the Paris region. Since padel is part of his life. You often see him touring France going to cover the major events of padel French.

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