Interview with Timéo Fonteny, who is not yet 17 years old and has just competed in first final of P1500 at 4Padel Bordeaux with Quentin Ayuso.
Tired but focused
Yoan and I had planned to do a pre-season focused a lot on physical training (10 hours per week and 6 hours of padel training) throughout January and early February. Unfortunately, Yoan fractured his foot on January 1st and that disrupted the schedule that we had set up with our coach Alain Henry.
For my part, I did not change the different deadlines planned, I just looked for other partners for the February and March tournaments. I finished my pre-season just before this p1500 so I arrived at the tournament quite tired but as soon as I entered the field I felt good, I was concentrated from the start of the matches.
Quentin (Ayuso), as usual, was very strong from start to finish and that allowed me to stay focused on myself, I knew he was doing the job on his side.
The journey to reach the final
The first match was not an easy draw but we were able to enter the tournament well from the start and we won in two sets.
In the quarter, Saturday evening, we had a very complicated match against Simon Wagner and Alexis Coulombeau who played an incredible game with a lot of aggression. It took us three sets to win, the match lasted two hours and was very nerve-racking, but it's great to have managed to come out victorious!
In the semi-final we won in two sets against Sanchez and Rouanet: a good performance because the last time Quentin and I played them (at p1000 of Esprit Padel in Lyon a year ago), we lost in 3 sets.
A lot of fun despite the defeat in the final
In the final we knew that we were not favorites at all, but we entered the field with the desire to get our first p1500 for both of us. We had a good first set overall but they were better and won in the money time.
At the start of the second, I felt that physically I was starting to struggle but Quentin got me back into it from 4/0 double break for them. He told me to play the way I wanted to and that’s where we started our comeback. We bow to tie-breaker of the second set after a big physical fight in this final but I really enjoyed playing with Quentin and being coached by my partner Yoan.
Xan is a fan of padel. But also of rugby! And his posts are just as punchy. Physical trainer of several padel players, he finds atypical posts or deals with current topics. He also gives you some advice to develop your physique for padel. Clearly, he imposes his offensive style as on the padel court!