Tennis: at the Gard committee, “we broke our license record”

At the head of the Gard Tennis committee since 2018, Stéphane Duplissy, 51, licensed at the TC of the Oppidum of Nages-et-Solorgues, has just been re-elected for four years. With encouraging prospects…

What flavor does this re-election have for you and your team?

We are satisfied, because we had a list in front of us, and we were re-elected with more than 82% of the votes. But the period was difficult because we were attacked from all sides by our opponents. They did not control their communication, on social networks or during a public meeting with Germain Roesch, candidate for president of the Federation (elections in December, while the Duplissy team supports the outgoing Gilles Morretton, Editor's note ). We relied on our good results.

Exactly, what is your assessment and how is the Gard committee doing?

We broke our record for licensees. There are almost 14,000 of us, including 6,000 children. We have never had so many since we had the figures, in 1992. We are driven by the padel, which concerns between 1,000 and 2,000 licensees, or between 10 and 15%, and it will continue to rise. The championship padel companies is going strong elsewhere.

To return to tennis, we invested a lot in young people to bring them to the high level, by making them participate in tournaments abroad, the Petits As qualifications, by helping them financially, and it works, some come out

. We also redid the sports calendar, the interclubs, to be able to play at the right times. And we managed to establish ourselves well in schools.

What are the main axes of your program for the next four years?

First, continue to invest in young people. We will soon launch a call for tenders to host two international ITF U14 tournaments in Gard. TC Uzès is interested. There is also the development of pickleball (light tennis, Editor's note), which is booming. It is played with a light racket and a plastic ball, on a badminton-sized court, in singles or doubles. We bought kits, which we can lend to clubs. We would like to promote discipline in middle and high schools.