Scheduled in the evening, on a Philippe-Chatrier court with slightly more crowded stands than during the day, the three French pairs did not provide the expected spectacle yesterday. Without dampening an audience that remained playful and enthusiastic in the balmy night of Roland-Garros, the Blues missed their entry into the Paris Pro Tour, a tournament bringing together the world’s beach volleyball elite. One by one, the local duos were swept away in straight sets.
On this performance alone, we are far from the fight for Olympic qualification in the ranking promised to the seventeen best pairs from the period January 2023-June 2024, on the basis of the twelve best results. Especially since, among the men, the Federation went looking, a year ago, for two receivers-attackers in the League A rooms, Julien Lyneel and Rémi Bassereau, to increase the chances of seeing two pairs compete in the Olympic tournament under the Eiffel Tower (France has at least one quota).
“A start like that is hard, there was a lot of waiting”
The idea had its effect: Youssef Krou and Arnaud Gauthier-Rat, 42nd in the world and having qualified in Paris a year ago, are now in 11th place, with an Elite 16 tournament on the list (in Torquay, in Australia, in November 2022). Healthy competition, prospect of the Games or fruit of the work undertaken five years ago with the Brazilian staff, led by Lissandro Carvalho? “It’s a mix of all that,” judges Christophe Victor, French beach manager. We decided to look for two indoor players with great potential. I think it was useful, it gave them a little booster shot. The first performances for confidence, the internship in Brazil, which we didn’t do before… All these little things made the mayonnaise take hold. »
The injury to Youssef Krou, at the Montreal tournament at the end of July, put an end to the performances of the duo, who played last night, against Brazilians who had finished qualifying but had already won the French twice this season, their first match for eight weeks. “A start like that is hard, there was a lot of waiting, but you have to give yourself the right to make mistakes,” comments Gauthier-Rat.
The Lyneel-Bassereau duo had not set foot on the sand together since April and the former’s back injury. Their Brazilian opponents, world number 5, knew how to exploit their hesitations. “We have to get back into the rhythm,” admits Lyneel. Physically, in the head… You play guys who have tournaments in their legs. We have to rediscover the symbiosis that we had a few months ago, it doesn’t come back like that. »
Like the two female representatives, Alexia Richard and Lézana Placette, also beaten last night, the French have two meetings today to continue their progress and score valuable points.
2023-09-29 06:26:37
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