If you judged Lille by the headline rankings, Théo Platel would be resting on Friday morning. He is the highest-ranked contracted man in the field, No. 168 in the world with 225 points on PPA Tour Europe’s own roster, and he is a Frenchman playing in France. Instead he is in the round of 32, against Aiman Fakieh, with the winner of Aubin Duchier and Michał Pochopień waiting after that.
The reason is simple and, for once, entirely fair. The four byes in the 28-man men’s singles draw went to the four men with the most singles ranking points: Mikołaj Biedermann (175, 130th on the world singles list), Cyril Peltier (131, 157th), Héctor Sánchez Vidal (102, 176th) and Krisztian Kaszoni (100, 177th). Platel has 72 singles points and sits 211th. His overall number is built elsewhere. On a singles day, the singles list decides who sits down.
That makes Friday a better test than it looked. Platel is the obvious French story. He is also, on the only numbers that count today, the fifth man in the draw.
Platel’s road runs through Kaszoni
Follow the bracket and the second quarter is the one to watch. If Platel gets past Fakieh, and then Duchier or Pochopień, his quarter-final opponent should be Kaszoni, who meets the winner of Nicolas Ebran and Šimon Vališ after his bye.
Kaszoni is the man who removed Zane Navratil 11–2, 11–2 in Barcelona in September and then took the eventual champion, Jhonnatan Medina Alvarez, to a deciding game. A man with 100 singles points who does that is not a soft quarter-final. He is also a fair illustration of why a singles draw should be built on the singles list.
Peltier, the other contracted Frenchman, is in the bottom half, so the two home players cannot meet before the final. His bye takes him to the winner of Clovis Dame and Brayden Peck, and then, probably, to one of two more contracted players: Martin Thomas, who opens against Joris Weimar, or Davide Vendrame, who opens against Matteo Livi.
Ling and Seccia, a round early
The draw has not been kind to James Ling. The English Nationals Open mixed champion opens against Stephane Falcoz, and if he wins, his round-of-16 opponent is likely to be Alberto Seccia, who plays Benoit Vinchent first. Both are contracted, and neither has many singles points to protect: Ling has 31, Seccia 25. Double elimination means the loser drops into the back draw rather than out of Lille. The winner gets a quarter-final against Biedermann’s side of the bracket.
Ling’s Barcelona singles is worth remembering. He took Medina Alvarez to 12–10 in the third game of their round of 16 there, which is a lot closer to the eventual champion than Biedermann got in the quarter-finals (11–3, 11–4). Biedermann still has the points, the bye and, if he wins his first match, a quarter-final against whoever comes out of Ling’s corner. Points are a record of what you have done. Friday is about what you do next.
At the bottom, Sánchez Vidal waits for Maxence Schirrecker or Ori Maior. Bartosz Karbownik, another contracted name with 50 singles points, opens against Ali Fassahi and would then meet Yuri Syromolotov Netrebin or Alban Sauce.
The men start at 08:30 in Villeneuve-d’Ascq, which is 07:30 in London.
Women’s singles: Amaro first, Enmer second, then a coin toss
The women’s draw is 15 players, starting at 11:30 in Villeneuve-d’Ascq, 10:30 in London. Raquel Amaro has the one bye. She also has the most singles points in the field, 106, which puts her 153rd in the world. Myriam Enmer, on 92, is in the other half and opens against Helena Korompis.
The match that looks like it matters most is a quarter-final that does not exist yet. Ellie Tomkinson plays Noesjka Brink, and Alexandra Zapletalová plays Anna Rupf, and if the two favourites win, they meet next. Tomkinson and Zapletalová are both contracted, and both have exactly 37 singles points. You will not find a more honest pre-match prediction than that.
Viktória Kanichová, on 50, opens against Ornella Ohayon, with Thaila Rodrigues or Jean Iau to follow. Alexia Alvarez plays Polly Po Kuen Lam for the right to meet Enmer.
What the day is worth
Singles at a P125 is not about the money. The winner gets €300, which in pickleball terms is a decent dinner and a train fare. It is about the points, and Lille’s double-elimination format means one bad match will not end anybody’s Friday, only their chances of gold. The main draw is best of three to 11, and so are the medal matches.
The question for Platel is the one every player in this field eventually meets. He has the ranking that gets French headlines. Friday asks whether he has the singles to match it, and it has given him an extra round to prove it.
