In charge, with Jonas Mouly, of the HDN Academy where the Nîmes Tennis Tour will take place from July 3 to 25, 2023, Cédric Nouvel prioritizes the Nîmes entity for any event it can host. While the NTT has replaced the Circuit de la Ville de Nîmes, the former president of TC HDN provides an answer to Vincent Dubois, manager of the former tournament, who was surprised not to have been informed of a change. .
Cédric Nouvel, 60 years old on July 14, is a good communicator. As he was, in his early youth, a good tennis player, dismissed from the age of 17 “in my heart club”, he says, ranked – 15 at his best (683rd ATP) within the TC Hauts-de-Nîmes. So, inevitably, the new manager, with Jonas Mouly, of the HDN Academy wants to take care of his “baby”: “What you really have to think about is the interests of tennis and, in general , young people who come to play. The institution comes before the men who make it. An institution is respected as such.”
The HDN Academy, monument founded in 1977
An almost fifty-year-old HDN Academy which is doing rather well and is preparing to host one of the biggest national events on its courts (in addition to those of TC Kennedy): the Nîmes Tennis Tour, from July 3 to 25, and its more than 3,000 registered registrations. “For three weeks, it takes us 7 days out of 7 of our time,” recalls Cédric Nouvel. And it is not Vincent Dubois, manager of the former Circuit de la Ville de Nîmes, the last edition of which took place in 2022, who would have said the opposite. The latter who also reacted on the subject.
“It is important to specify that Vincent Dubois is someone I greatly appreciate, for whom I have a lot of respect, recalls Nouvel. I have nothing to complain about his skills, he worked magnificently at the HDN , where we trained him when he arrived at the club in the early 2000s.”
Agreement signed in November 2022 with the NTT
This 2023 edition will take place without the sports director of TC La Cigale. “In September 2022, after my ex-partner sold his shares, there was no longer a Circuit. With Jonas, we then met Michel Ramillon and Sébastien Garcia, organizers of the NTT for four years, and we signed a agreement with them, in November, so that the event takes place at the HDN. The agreement being signed, I then informed by mail the organizers, who had requested approval for the Circuit, that it was no longer possible to ‘use HDN courts.’
“This place is made to develop tennis, to have our young people play there”
A month before, in October, a rather eventful elective General Assembly had, among other things, resulted in a request for the recovery of the land. Without success. “I would like to clarify something very important to me, insists Nouvel. What we have done, give leave, in the spring of 2023, to the association, the TC Hauts-de-Nîmes (replaced by the HDN TC), we We didn’t do it against anyone, but because we wanted the HDNs to live, this place is made to develop tennis. It’s a great tool, we make our young people play there in training. Once again , I didn’t do it against anyone. We just need this tool. And Vincent Dubois, he remains someone I appreciate.”
This off-court subject closed, it is now time to talk a little about tennis in less than a week on those of the HDN…
