With two victories, Baptiste Careme was the most succesful player at the White Nights Challenge in Gatchina. We spoke to the French doubles ace about the event in Russia, his next tournaments and his further ambitions in 2012.

Baptiste, was it your first ever international double triumph? How does it feel?

Yes, it's my first double success ever in an international tournament and of course it feels great! I had already won the Dutch International last year - but just in the men’s doubles and winning two titles at the same tournament makes me feel really happy and proud. Because we all, I mean the players of the French Team, improved individually a lot this year. And so it feels good to see that the work we did is finally bearing its fruits. Especially having an all-French final in men’s double shows that we have the potential to do even better. That is motivating.

How would you wrap up the Russian tournament from your perspective?

We knew we could win in the mixed doubles as we already beat these pairs in the past but still I’m glad about the way we did it. We both played seriously and didn't lose even one game, so we couldn't be happier. We had some really good matches since we started to play together last year but we were not really stable, and now we proved that we are more consistent so it is a great satisfaction. In the men’s doubles, it was different because Gaetan and I were playing together for the first time as my doubles partner Sylvain Grosjean decided to quit playing badminton at a high level a few months ago.

Also, Gaetan is just 19 years old so, of course, we have not been the favorites in this tournament. We had to face really good pairs ,for example the Polish guys who played really well and of course our training partners and friends. But we managed it well, Gaetan showed his potential and played great the whole tournament. We knew that if we fight really hard for each point, then everything is possible. Ronan and Mathias might be disappointed because they were favorites to take the title but every match between friends and training partners are kind of special - especially in finals.Yesterday, we were maybe slightly better this time but I am still glad that we all reached the final and had to face each other and I am sure that it won't be the last time (laughs).

And in general, it is the third time that we participate in this tournament and every year we are really well welcomed by the Russian staff. The hall is ok and the organization is great, it is a really good tournament.

What are your next tournaments?

For the next three weeks, we will enjoy our holidays (laughs). And then we will play Belgian International, Czech International and also Bitburger Open and of course the French Open Super Series. Then, we will certainly try to play more Super Series tournaments to try to confirm our improvement and make some good performances. Even if I am 26, it is still not so old for an European player so I am really looking forward to the upcoming years and I will try to improve as much and as fast as I can and qualify for 2016 in Rio.

What would you like to achieve in 2012?

I would like to continue performing this way and enter the top 25 in the World Rankings. But also, we are really looking forward to the Sudirman Cup where we will try to do even better than our good performance from last year. As I said, every player improved a lot and we really have a good team spirit so we will aim for higher performance. But badminton is not everything and I would also like to succeed in my exam so that I can finally focus on badminton at full-time from next year.

Thanks for the interview!

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