Mario Cordero was able to interview exclusively Thomas Leygue, the reigning French champion, after his victory in the qualifications of the FIP Rise in Bordeaux.

After a complicated start to the season, he says he is happy to win a good match against two good players.

A tense game

“Physically, I feel very good. But I had a bad start to the season and I lost games that I won last year. I therefore entered the field more tense because I knew that I was not necessarily confident.

Things are not coming as I would like. I don't want to miss, so I'm not 100% relaxed. I want to do well!

I'm also concentrating because I've changed a lot of things in order to be focused on the pitch and try to have as few ups and downs as possible. Of course, I'm going to splurge less than before because before, I was playing in a much more risky way.

I don't want to play 9 and after 5, I rather want to play 7-8 for the whole game. Above all, I want to be much more regular.

Admittedly, I'm not going to change in 2 months, but the goal is to work more on the point as we saw at Padel Horizon. Here, the objective is to find these feelings and not to play irregularly the whole match. “

Thomas Leygue

Being seeded in Rise FIPs doesn't mean much

“The goal is to find the attitude I had. Today, it is certain that on the outside you can see that I am more tense, but I had feelings, I felt good on the court.

The tense moments at the start of the match, we did not play them very well. They played better than us, but we were able to come back. And that's where I'm happy, it was to come back from a break for the others!

It's not necessarily easy since these are players who are not seeded because they didn't necessarily play the FIP circuit last year, but they still play the WPT previas.

So these are two very good players who are at the same level as us and in addition, we were not favorites at all in the match.

For example, I have points that I got last year thanks to the Premier Padel …and they didn't play too much, so we start as the top seed.

It's normally an advantage, but the level of play in the tournament is very high. So there is no easy game. “

Leygue Figuerola
Leygue Figuerola
Leygue Figuerola

Guillem Figuerola, his partner for the year?

“Normally, if all goes well, he is going to be my partner for the FIP and for the year. He's someone I knew because he played the FIP circuit a bit and he even won last year at Canet.

He was a former partner of Mercadal, who is a friend of mine, and suddenly I knew he was playing well. I liked his style of play and I think we can complement each other well. Afterwards, we've only just started so it's sure that sometimes it shows that we have little playing time together.

But I think he's a reliable person who defends very well. And me, on the right who am a little more aggressive, it suits me perfectly I think. ”

Leygue Figuerola victory

The rest of the program

“I think now we are going to rest a bit. And after that, I'll take a quick trip to the center to visit Bordeaux, since tomorrow we'll be fighting again.

We come from a big pre-season. There have been quite a few tournaments lately and I haven't had a day off. I trained Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

So I'm not going to give it another shot this afternoon knowing that if we win tomorrow, we'll have two games to play, so there's no point in getting burned. “

Varlion, best pala brand for Thomas

" For me, Varlion is the best brand by far! Honestly, it's not for publicity, but I really mean it.

I think snowshoes are another world. Afterwards, it's sure that the prices are not very approachable, but I really advise you if you have the means to buy a Varlion racket because they are incredible.

They are also made in Spain, unlike those of all the other brands which are made in China or Pakistan...(Editor's note: other brands like StarVie or Cartri also manufacture palas in Spain)

The quality is really good hence the price, and they break much less. This is the advantage of the racket.

Me, I play with the Maxima Summum Prisma Flow, so the one with holes on the sides. This is the new model for this year with really much less air resistance. The racquet is in the lead and it seems light.

It's really nice to play with this racquet! “

Eleonore Coulibaly

What a pleasure to be a journalist in the middle of the padel, an attractive growing sport. I hope you enjoy the content offered. See you soon perhaps on the slopes!

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