Top seeds dominate French Padel weekend across Nîmes and Lésigny

Paul Forichon and Ludovic Cancel survived the toughest final of the weekend in Nîmes, where the top seeds beat Louis Jover and Pedro Diaz Torregrosa 7-6, 6-3 after a first set that went all the way to a tie-break. Forichon and Cancel took that breaker 7-4, then closed out the match before the pressure from a demanding semifinal, which had already pushed Forichon hard against Timéo Fonteny and Tom Taieb.

Nîmes also delivered the cleanest women’s result of the top-seed sweep. Joana Bougon and Carla Gontier won the women’s title 6-2, 6-1 against Lienard and Sorel, giving the No. 1 pair a straight-line run through the draw. In the men’s event, Forichon and Cancel arrived as the highest-ranked team in the field, with a combined pair weight of 70 and both players inside the French Top 40. That status mattered, but it did not remove the need to work for every opening against a solid final pairing.

The weekend’s sharpest warning sign for anyone expecting routine finishes came in Lésigny. Hugo Cazaban and Raphaël Rubio had to dig out a 6-2, 6-7, 6-4 win over Gautier Boutel and Yannouk Henrion, and the runners-up had two match points before the top seeds steadied the match and took control again in the third set. That was the kind of final that separates a strong seed from a title holder: one or two points the other way, and the bracket looks different.

Vernon added another top-seed victory, with Alexise Duchêne and Charlyne Tonda taking the women’s title 7-5, 6-0 over Laura Robineau and Marine Fontaine. The field there included ten players from the French Top 100, a reminder that these P1000 events were not soft stops on the calendar but real ranking tests. Across Nîmes, Lésigny and Vernon, the pattern was clear: the favorites mostly protected their spots, but not without pressure, set swings and enough close calls to show that the tier still has bite beneath the headline winners.