Pommier: More young girls in French padel
Frédéric Pommier, France's interregional federal padel sports representative, was present at the Masters Jeunes d'Île-de-France at the Club des Pyramides. A few weeks before the European Championships in Porto, Padel Magazine spoke with him about youth development, women's padel and the rapid growth of the tournament calendar in France. His central message: more and more young girls will take up the sport. The conversation offered insight into a youth sector that is currently growing especially fast in France.
A Masters that is hard to fault
The Masters Jeunes in Île-de-France brought together a new generation of competitors at the Club des Pyramides. Some could wear France's national colours within a few years. Asked for a review of the event, Pommier replied confidently that with the current organisation it would be difficult to find negatives. The setting works, the number of children keeps rising, and so does the level of play.
The challenge now is to support that growth. More and more children arrive by bus wanting to play. Clubs must step up and organise youth tournaments to keep developing the sport. As a concrete highlight, Pommier named Loïs Meyer and Sacha Devriendt, selected for the European Championships in Porto. Overall, he sees many positive signs for French youth padel at the Masters.
Women's padel as a central issue
At this Masters, girls and boys played in the same draws, without a dedicated girls' category. Pommier called women's padel a genuine issue. More and more players of very high level are emerging. Yet without the option to integrate girls with boys, women's-only draws would be very thin.
France is not yet ready – and probably not next year either – for exclusively female circuits. That remains a goal that still requires work. Pommier cited around 20,000 active female competitors. Action levers are not easy to find, but the path starts with specific initiatives and perhaps more training for female coaches across the federation.
More young girls on court
Padel Magazine then asked whether the dynamic among the youngest players is really changing. Pommier answered with conviction: girls are blossoming across the country. Two weeks earlier, a national U12 gathering was held in Vichy with girls from all over France, some already playing very well and showing the potential within the youth ranks.
He is unsure whether the gender ratio can be fully restored, as boys also arrive in large numbers. Still, he is convinced that more and more young girls will take up padel. In two or three years he hopes to build a fully separate women's draw – even if an exact 50-50 balance is not the immediate target, but a gradual move in that direction.
Tournament boom: do we need quotas?
Another debate concerns the explosive rise in padel tournaments. Four to six months ago, any event filled up within two days. Today some competitions have weaker fields. Pommier acknowledges that a review will be needed once the situation stabilises to assess which measures make sense.
Asked about quotas on P500 events, he pointed to category evolution: today's P1000 are no longer yesterday's P1000; P3000 will arrive next year and P1500 will disappear. There used to be at most one P1000 per weekend as the biggest national competition; today there can be five on the same weekend. Pommier is broadly in favour of this evolution – the assessment will come in one or two years.
Top players used to compete mainly in France; now around twenty pros travel internationally. The idea is to follow competitors' demand and raise standards while keeping P250 and P500 players satisfied. P500, once almost national level, now functions more as a departmental or regional tier – and the French circuit is moving in that direction.
Higher standards across the field
Despite the debate over tournament density, Pommier sees progress in overall standards. The top 100 may not be much stronger in the rankings than before, but the wider field has improved. Around 150 players once competed at that level; today about 1,000 fight for those positions. In his view, that shows the depth of the French player pool and is moving in the right direction.
His next milestone is the FIP Promises in Paris, and he invited everyone to attend the international event. In the U12, U14, U16 and U18 categories, teams from Argentina, Portugal, Sweden and other nations will compete. Pommier hopes as many players as possible from Île-de-France and across France will take part to test themselves against international level and gain experience ahead of the European Championships in Porto.
