France sweep opening day at World University Padel Championships

France opened the first FISU World University Championship Padel in Málaga with three victories, a statement start that immediately gave the new event competitive weight. Clara Mansart and Eliot Deknuydt survived the toughest of the French matches, edging Italy 4/6, 7/5, 7/6 in mixed doubles, before Louise Bahurel and Nathan Courrin, the No. 1 seeds in the mixed draw, swept Norway 6/0, 6/0. Deknuydt and Courrin then finished the day with a 6/1, 6/1 win over Sweden in the men’s draw.

That clean sweep mattered beyond the scoreboard because this was not a ceremonial debut. The championship, staged by the University of Málaga from July 7 to 11, is the first FISU padel competition ever held worldwide and brought together more than 120 athletes from about 20 countries. The format is built around country points rather than isolated pair results, with men’s pairs, women’s pairs and mixed pairs all contributing to the national standings, and FISU allows a maximum of 32 teams in each category and up to 12 athletes per delegation, six men and six women.

The setup has given the week a different feel from a typical invitation event. Every draw is a full ranking tournament, so pairs are playing for every position in the final classification, not just medals at the top. That structure raised the value of France’s fast start and also explained why the opening rounds were watched closely at PSM Fantasy, the host club with 12 indoor courts spread across two adjacent buildings and a central court that seats 100 spectators.

The event’s institutional backing has been strong in Spain. The opening ceremony took place on July 6 at the UMA Botanical Garden on the Teatinos campus, with the closing ceremony scheduled there for July 11 at 8 p.m. Silvia Jover is serving as Technical Committee Chair and Icíar Montes as Technical Committee Vice-Chair, giving the championship a prominent Spanish technical leadership alongside the University of Málaga’s hosting role.

France’s early momentum also fit a broader pattern on the opening days, with FISU noting on July 8 that France, Italy and Spain had multiple teams moving into the knockout phase. France’s women were due to enter the competition the next day, with Bahurel and Clara Mansart set to meet Chinese Taipei’s Tong-Jing Liu and Chieh-Lin Yu in the round of 16, another test of whether university padel can develop into a genuine pathway rather than a one-off showcase.