On Monday 24 August, five all-French pairs contest the first round of qualifying at FIP Gold Belgrade: Guy de Chamisso / Vives, Robert / Joris, Muesser / Hugounenq, Courrin / Seux and Rubio / Iznasni. No official scores are available at the time of writing, with play starting at 10:00 in Belgrade.
Five French pairs on Monday’s order of play
On court 2, Olivier Guy de Chamisso / Manuel Vives, the No. 5 seeds in qualifying, open against Aleksandr Plotnikov and Pedro Salas. Jérémy Robert / Maxime Joris follow on the same court against Ziga Kovacic and Jaka Rodošek.
Three more French teams are scheduled in later rotations. Yanis Muesser / Arthur Hugounenq, the No. 7 seeds, face Serbian wild cards Luka Vitosevic and Luka Sucevic. Nathan Courrin / Thomas Seux meet Italian No. 3 seeds Giuseppe Fino and Lorenzo Di Giovanni. On court 3, Raphaël Rubio / Sami Iznasni play Hungary’s Gergő Rendek and Balint Dobak.
Entry lists published before the tournament showed 15 French players, including six men’s pairs in qualifying. The official order of play for 24 August now lists only five. Benjamin Dufour and Rafael Marquet, who appeared on the earlier entry list, are not on Monday’s schedule. Today’s French watch therefore centres on the ten players actually scheduled to compete.
€50,000 and a main draw starting on 26 August
FIP Gold Belgrade runs from 24 to 30 August with €50,000 in prize money. The FIP has scheduled three qualifying rounds across two days. Four pairs will advance to the 32-team main draw, whose first round begins on Wednesday 26 August.
In the men’s draw, the FIP lists Miguel Yanguas / Coki Nieto as the No. 1 seeds and Franco Stupaczuk / Jon Sanz as the No. 2 seeds. Women’s entry lists published before the tournament also featured Alejandra Salazar, alongside French players Alix Collombon, Carla Touly and Kimy Barla.
The organisers want to establish the event among Serbia’s major international tournaments. In the official tournament presentation, Đorđe Mijailović, President of the Padel Association of Serbia, set out that ambition:
We expect a spectacular event that will leave a lasting mark on the history of padel in the Balkans.
For the French players, the immediate task is simple. A win on Monday sends them into the second and third qualifying rounds on Tuesday. The four main-draw places will then be decided before the leading names enter the tournament on Wednesday.
