The greatly anticipated BWF Tour Super 100 event, the Orléans Masters 2018, will commence on Tuesday. Competition will be strong in all events, but the home fans will be looking forward to cheering on their No. 2 seeded mixed partnership, Ronan Labar and Audrey Fontaine.
They both feel that they are in good form after a solid display at the All England 2018 against the eventual semi-finalists and No. 8 seeds Zhang Nan and Li Yinhui, but know too well the pressure and challenge ahead, as Ronan says
-We will just try to go as far as possible in the tournament, but each round is difficult, so we will take game after game. But of course, it would be great to play Sunday for the final.
For both Labar and Fontaine, this tournament is an important stepping stone towards the European Championships 2018, taking place in Huelva, Spain 24 – 29 April. So, a good run, or a title win would be ideal and the home support can help them to the final. Ronan says
- The main focus is to be 120% for Europeans end of April.
Every win here will be hard earned
Many other pairs will be coming to Orléans to also test their form prior to the European Championships. One such pair are Irish partnership, Sam and Chloe Magee. After a strong display in Birmingham last week at All England 2018 against the Olympic Silver medallists Chan Peng Soon and Goh Liu Ying, taking them to 3 sets, the No. 5 seeds are positive, but know the hard work needed from the first round, as Sam says
- We know we have tough matches from the opening round and every win here will be hard earned. As regard rivals, they are many good European pairs with similar ranking to us in the draw and would great to get some matches against those pairs to test our level.
Find the draws for Orléans Masters 2018
here.
We can handle the situation
Of course the pair to beat are the Swiss Open 2018 champions (last month) and No. 1 seeds Mark Lamsfuss and Isabel Herttrich of Germany. They are in truly great form and are confident they can take the pressure of being the favourites as Isabel states
-I know that there are a lot of strong pairs competing. But we showed in the Swiss that we can handle the situation quite good, so of course our goal is to win again.
Isabel so pleased with her form, also reveals one of her major goals this season
-My big goal in this season is to stand on the podium at the European Championships in Huelva.