Tennis. N1M: why TC Quimperlé is a French exception

N1M. Échirolles – TC Quimperlé (B), Sunday

Almost three years after acquiring their promotion, the TC Quimperlé reserve workforce is lastly making ready to find the National 1 championship. Sunday, in Échirolles, as within the following weeks, it is their opponent's flag workforce reverse. And for good purpose: of the 24 groups that make up the 4 teams of N1M, just one is a reserve: the TCQ.

How did the membership led by Basile Spanos handle to construct a sturdy sufficient squad to carry two groups within the high three rungs of French tennis? The president would not actually have a proof. “We have a nursery, young people who go up, players registered for the Pro A who can go down, he tries. We are a training club, it motivates ”.

“An awesome adventure”

Julien Lepère, captain of this reserve workforce which has climbed the ranks at full velocity in a few seasons, from N4 to N1 (23 video games with out defeat, present collection), believes that this accession “is clearly a culmination. It's a great adventure with young people from the club. We have often been very strong in doubles, because we have been playing together for years”.

For his discovery of the N1, the duty of the TCQ, with its intelligent mixture of “local” gamers (Bastien Huon or the younger Niels Villard) and a few international components (the Spaniard Roberto Ortega Olmedo, former 226th on the earth, or the Greek rookie Petros Tsitsipas, little brother of Stefanos), nevertheless, guarantees to be “very very complicated, warns Lepère. We will be the weakest team, at least on paper. We will still try to maintain, but there is no pressure on it: if we are in N2 next season, it will not matter ”.

The workforce: Roberto Ortega Olmedo (ESP, 513th ATP), Petros Tsitsipas (GRE, 761st ATP), Jakob Johansson Holm (SWE, -15), Bastien Huon (0), Sylvestre Monnou (BEN, 0), Niels Villard (1/6) , Marius Portebois (1/6), Julien Lepère (3/6).

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