Thom Gicquel and Delphine Delrue have secured their spot in the quarterfinals at the India Open 2025 after a convincing second-round victory over Singapore's Hee and Yin, winning 21-14, 21-9.
These days, it seems almost a given that the French pair will progress through the early rounds of every tournament, but that hasn’t always been the case.
Tough start at the 2024 season
The duo reached their highest world ranking at the start of 2023, climbing to an impressive fifth place. During that time, they reached the final at the China Open and the semifinals at the Indonesia Masters. However, the beginning of 2024 was a stark downturn for the French pair, as they suffered first-round defeats in five out of their first six tournaments of the year. By mid-2024, their ranking had plummeted to 23rd in the world.
At the Denmark Open in October, a first-round exit seemed imminent again as the pair trailed 19-14 and 20-17 after losing the first set decisively. However, Gicquel and Delrue managed to turn the match around, winning in three sets. Reflecting on the match, Thom Gicquel admitted, “We didn’t deserve to win that match,” and explained that they abandoned their tactical approach and simply played their game as best they could. You can watch the interview
here.
Whether it was this breakthrough moment that the pair needed remains uncertain, but the fact is that from that match onward, they have consistently competed at the highest level in almost every tournament. Their recent performances include a quarterfinal finish at the Denmark Open, a semifinal appearance at the Hylo Open, and a finals berth at the Japan Masters. These results have propelled the pair back up the world rankings.
As of the latest rankings published on January 14, 2025, the duo has climbed to 12th in the world. With several results from last year’s tournaments likely to improve given their current form, there’s significant potential for them to rise even higher in the rankings.
India Open 2025
Tomorrow, in the India Open quarterfinals, they will face Japan's eighth-seeded pair Hiroki Midorikawa and Natsu Saito, a pair the French duo just overtook on this week's world rankings.
We wish them the best of luck and celebrate their much-improved start to 2025 compared to the difficulties they faced at the start of 2024.
Gicquel and Delrue are through to tomorrow’s quarterfinals, but we still have more European players in action today, including Viktor Axelsen, Christo Popov, and the Scottish mixed doubles pair Alexander Dunn and Julie Macpherson.