In the last week of January, was the international tennis tournament for twelve to fourteen years old, 'Petits as'. Although new to us, any passionate young tennis player and some who are already serious players on the circuit know about it, it is in it's thirty second year and is always held in Tarbes. Lots of famous names that we all recognise have played here at Tarbes, Nadal, Federer, Murray, Justin Henin to name just a few.
see if there are any you recognise, and these are just the finalists
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| packed atmosphere for the finals |
We arrived with friends somewhere near the quarter finals and Marc and I were blown away by the standard of the tennis. There were players from all over the world, they are placed and seeded just like a regular grown up Wimbledon. We watched the number one seed Alen Avidzba from Russia beat Swiss Mischa Lanz, Rayane Roumane (FRE, one to watch) beat polish Tomasz Dudek, all of this enthused us so much that we were back on Friday.
Rayane is six foot two at thirteen years old and reputedly held a racket at the tender age of thirteen months old. One of his first serves this week was 208 kph!! He was given a wild card to play in the tournament which means he is unseeded
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| first in the afternoon....girls singles |
Around the tournament in the exhibition hall, were various activities for the children that went to watch, all for free, including rock climbing, bungee jumping and mini tennis with sponge balls. For the adults their was a bar, a big screen showing the live tennis in Australia and various eating places for both. Sponsors were also selling their wares, tennis rackets re-strung, large tennis balls to be bought for signing, these youngsters could be the future world champions.
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| the changing of the ball boys and girls |
On Friday in the quarter finals we saw Rosco Bellamy (no12) from America beat (no 4)
N .Vylegzhanin from Russia. Jake Hershey (gbr) against (no 11) German seed Nicola Kuhn on the second court , Jake, unfortunately, lost. We also watched an amazing girls quarterfinals, Russian A. Potapova (no7 ) against American Claire Liu (no 4). We left Rayane against the number one seed Alen...he was losing in the second set, how wrong could we be.
N .Vylegzhanin from Russia. Jake Hershey (gbr) against (no 11) German seed Nicola Kuhn on the second court , Jake, unfortunately, lost. We also watched an amazing girls quarterfinals, Russian A. Potapova (no7 ) against American Claire Liu (no 4). We left Rayane against the number one seed Alen...he was losing in the second set, how wrong could we be.
On Saturday we met Hugo who was excited and had visited a couple of times, despite our doom and gloom Rayane had won against the number one seed and put out the number 15 seed on Saturday!
On Saturday night we said to each other, shall we go and see the finals tomorrow then.....
Sunday, a packed stadium, understandably, we did not go in the morning although i have to say what i saw of the wheelchair tennis was absolutely amazing. Unfortunately you cannot leave a puppy in the house for more than four to five hours and we did learn an expensive lesson today.
I gave Milou a long walk before we left, and we arrived just before two to see the ceremonies for the winners of the wheelchair tennis, some very brave young adults.
What proceeded that was music and a very contemporary young dance group split into five different performances. As much pomp and ceremony as any major tournament in London. The finalists were brought on by soldier boy drummers in complete regalia with bearskin hats.
Claire Lui who we had seen on the Friday (no 4) against Bianca Andreescu (no 12), absolutely amazing brilliant tennis, we definitely could have been on the courts at any English big boys tournament, the stadium was packed, even the steps. Andreescu was from Canada and the french unseeded lad was next against the German number eleven, Nicola Kuhn, so naturally the natives were excited.
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| 6'2, thirteen year old Rayane Rouame |
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| a super packed stadium |
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| German, Nicola Kuhn in the final against Rayane |
Did it again...maybe it was a good omen we left (after five hours, too long to leave a pup) Rayane was losing against Kuhn two sets down....but he pulled through after we left to win the tournament. The french crowd must have really erupted, he had had a very tough draw including the number one along the way. He also won the doubles with his partner Hugo Gaston there seems to be no stopping him, truly a young french hero.
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