After 28 hours on a plane and crossing the Pacific Ocean, brothers Mathieu and Guillaume Monot took part in their first French Championships. We went to meet these New Caledonians to learn more about them.

With only three tournaments padel disputed, initially tennis players, they started playing padel since a year. Their respective clubs in New Caledonia (Academy Club du Mont-Coffyn and Auteuil) have had playing fields built. padel and they tried this sport somewhat by chance.

An unusual game

Play at padel for the Monot brothers “is a hobby, the practice is new there”. Coaches continue to discover this sport, with the basics of tennis. Between the two sports, the transition was not very difficult but certain counter-intuitive sequences, such as letting the ball pass before hitting it, required adaptation and patience.

After seeing the level of the players in Toulouse, they feel that they are behind in their way of playing, but their atypical game has put their opponents in difficulty. Defeat in the first round 6/4 7/5 against Damien Bayard and Jérémy Macchi, quite a few missed opportunities, break opportunities in the first set. The lack of matches failed them in important moments. Lots of work still to progress and try to get as close as possible to the current level.

Far from France, they have difficulty realizing the level in France. At the end of last year, Bastien Blanqué, Thomas Leygue, Maxime Moreau, Alix Collombon and Wendy Barsotti came to do exhibitions and trained the New Caledonian coaches.

Hard to have a ceiling above them

Adapting to the room and the grounds was complicated for them. Accustomed to playing outdoors, they are not used to having a ceiling above their heads: visually it was difficult, especially for lobs, in a room barely higher than 7 m.

After their initial defeat, the last step for the Monot brothers are the classification matches, with the desire to come back stronger next year. They can't wait to talk about their experience of returning to New Caledonia and make people want to practice this sport.

Léa Deutsch

Passionate about Padel since 2018 with numerous experiences in communication and content creation, I want to share my passion with you through my writings.

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