This is my blog about the Bressuire tennis tournament which I was able to get into in April 2016. It was an amazing experience and hopefully, I will be able to come back next year to play in the Under 12 tournament in the same place.

All the matches in Bressuire had chair umpires which is unusual for a junior tournament. This was mostly for the Under 12 tournament, so in my matches in Thouars I had to call my own scores in French. The Referee was Sostherne Le Camus. He had a big job to look after all the matches in both age groups including doubles and the plate draw

Arthur, from Provence in France, was my doubles partner in the tournament. He was an amazing player and we played well together. Sadly we got knocked out in the Quarter Finals, but only by 2 points in the tie-break against a pair from Belgium. Hopefully we can play together again next time.

There are lots of Training courts in Bressuire and Thouars and Moncourant, so you can practice your shots and just warm up before matches.I had to book my own practice courts in the referee’s office.

During the tournament we were only allowed to score in French, which I had to learn. It was quite easy once you got used to it

This is the scoring in French:

Love: Zero
Fifteen: Quinze
Thirty: Trente
Forty: Quarante
Deuce; Quarante all egalite
Game: Jeu
Set: Manche
Advantage: Advantage
Match: Match

The main tournament was in Bressuire, but there were so many players and matches, they used courts in other towns nearby. This is Thouars where I played most of my matches, but I also went to train in Moncourant and the training courts in Bressuire