the sports center of the Islands hosts the Sion Open

For the 23rd year, Olivier Mabillard and his team are organising, from Thursday to Sunday, the Sion Open, a wheelchair tennis tournament which will take place on the outdoor courts. It will welcome some of the best specialists on the planet, even if the players of the top 10 in the world are not authorized to play in this tournament stamped ITF 3. “For men, four players (note: Nicolas Langmann, 17, Frédéric Cattaneo, 18, Gaëtan Menguy, 19, and Kouhei Suzuki, 24) are in the world top 25”, specifies Olivier Mabillard. “In the women’s table, they are two: Emmanuelle Mörch, 18, and the Swiss Nalani Buob, 25.”

Yann Avanthey reunites with his doubles partner

On the Valais side, only Yann Avanthey will be present on the Sédunois courts. However, he will have to pass a turn to enter the table. The prize-money amounts to 15,000 francs for an overall budget of more than 45,000 francs.

For the record, in doubles, Yann Avanthey will team up with Daniel Pellegrina. The two players had been associated at the Paralympic Games in London in 2012. Ten years earlier.

A demonstration in Sion

At the same time, as part of the panathlon, the City of Sion will host, on Friday morning from 11.30 a.m., a wheelchair tennis demonstration pitting the two best Swiss players against each other. “We will develop the Place du Midi with two mini-nets and a short track on the bitumen”, explains Olivier Mabillard, president of the Panathlon-Club Valais-Sion. “There will also be chairs available to the public so that they can test and realize the difficulty of hitting balls while handling the chair.”

Several disabled sports athletes, like Théo Gmür, Jacques Blanc, Philippe Moerch, will be present at the end of the week in Sion.