7,633 people are playing club Tennis in La Manche in 2024, with an additional 1,600 new licensees over the last three seasons. An increase in the budget is announced for 2025: a little less than 220,000 euros compared to 200,960 in 2024), justified by the increase in the funding for the Cherbourg Women's Open. Three questions for Stéphane Bouvry, president of the Manche departmental tennis committee.
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How can we explain this dynamic in the number of licensees?
The work done by the managers with the clubs is exceptional. There are more and more adults coming to our tennis schools (+10% compared to 2023). Teachers have adapted to this new demand.
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What projects drive the departmental committee?
There are clubs which have plans for new facilities. I am thinking in particular of the Sartilly club, where there are 150 licensees on a single indoor court, almost. There will be new grounds.
One of the projects that particularly drives us is the development of padel. There are interesting development prospects. The last club to affiliate is a 100% padel club, in Saint-Lô. More and more clubs are thinking about it even if it requires significant investment from town halls and communities. We were a little late in the Channel, but now there are projects in Sartilly, Barneville-Carteret… What is missing today are projects in Nord-Cotentin, near Cherbourg. The clubs are asking but I think that the budgets today mean that the communities have preferred to postpone this type of project.
Has wheelchair tennis benefited from a “paralympic” effect?
The development of wheelchair tennis remains insufficient, in our opinion. There are a few clubs which have chairs (Équeurdreville, Granville), we also have them at the departmental committee level but it remains very sparse. We need to be able to set up a tennis-health commission that takes this issue head on. It's complicated. We still have a lot of progress to make in this area.
