Annecy Rose Open Preview: Villard On The Right Path

The Annecy Rose Open is one of three tournaments on the Challenger Tour getting underway on Tuesday, March 5, with the Challenger 30 ever women’s event taking place at the RM Club in Annecy, France.

The tournament will feature nine of the world’s top 50, including the Belgian duo of Nele and Tinne Gilis, with the pair among the top three for the event. Egypt’s Nada Abbas will join those two in that bracket, with England’s Jasmine Hutton making up the rest of the top four seeds.

Enora Villard will be the leading French player on home soil for the event, and one of seven taking part, along with Marie Stephan, Taba Taghavi and Elise Romba also featuring. We spoke to Villard prior to the tournament getting underway, and she believes that she is improving day-by-day.

“To be honest, I think I have improved on many things I am working on in training but it takes time to see it coming in the matches, especially because I have been playing a lot of big events and facing higher ranked players straight away in first round,” the Frenchwoman said.

“I can feel the gap and the huge amount of work I still have to do. But I know where I want to take my game and I can feel that I’m on the right path. I am very happy to be in the top 40 and I’ve worked very hard to reach this ranking but of course I am hungry for more and I know I can still improve in each and every part of the game.

“As I said I think that to beat girls from the top 30 I have to take everything to another level but I would say that right now the main improvement could come from the mental part, change the way I approach matches, get more confident in my game and also become more consistent because that’s what makes the girls in the top 30 so tough to beat. The game has also become much more physical so Improving the fitness will always be helpful.”

This tournament will be the biggest to be held on French soil since the Silver level Open de France – Nantes presented by Tailor Capital, back in September 2019. Villard is hoping that the home crowd will be able to spur her on this week.

“It’s true that we don’t have a lot of big events in France so I’m very excited about this tournament and the fact that I might have the crowd behind me could be a big help, especially after this tough period of COVID, and not being able to have any coaches or people watching,” she explained.

Along with personal achievements, the Frenchwoman is looking forward to being a part of the team at the European Team Championships, where her nation will aim to defend the title they won three years ago, the last time the event was held.

“Annecy will be my last event before the Europeans and I will make the most of these few weeks to be ready to compete under the French flag because this is always an amazing event, a great atmosphere and huge pride to play for France,” Villard said.

“We also have to remember that we are the defending champions so we will be hungry to do as well as possible even if the team won’t be as strong without our leader, Camille Serme. We will still try to do the job and make her, and everyone else supporting us, proud.”

The event takes place from Tuesday, March 5 to Saturday, April 9 at the RM Club in Annecy, where Enora Villard will be the leading Frenchwoman for the tournament. Follow the PSA Challenger Tour on *Twitter* and *Facebook* for daily updates from the event.

Action from Annecy will be streamed throughout the week on the *tournament’s Facebook page*, where you can watch all the action from the event.

First Round Draw: Annecy Rose Open
[1] Nele Gilis (BEL) – [Bye]
Elise Romba (FRA) v [9/16] Marie Stephan (FRA)
[9/16] Nadia Pfister (SUI) v [WC] Vanessa Florens (FRA)
[5] Enora Villard (FRA) – [Bye]
[8] Milou van der Heijden (NED) – [Bye]
Ella Galova (FRA) v [9/16] Grace Gear (ENG)
[9/16] Julianne Courtice (ENG) v Ali Loke (WAL)
[4] Jasmine Hutton (ENG) – [Bye]
[3] Tinne Gilis (BEL) – [Bye]
Taba Taghavi (FRA) v [9/16] Tessa ter Sluis (NED)
[9/16] Cristina Gomez (ESP) v Nardine Garas (EGY)
[7] Emilia Soini (FIN) – [Bye]
[6] Anna Serme (CZE) – [Bye]
Saskia Beinhard (GER) v [9/16] Anna Kimberley (ENG)
[9/16] Sarah Cardwell (AUS) v [WC] Ninon Lemarchand (FRA)
[2] Nada Abbas (EGY) – [Bye]