Guichard Skips Kuwait Qualifying — Five More French Players Face a Major Test
GOATIFYDylan Guichard has earned something he has never had at a Premier Padel Major: a place in the main draw without needing either a qualifying victory or a wild card. The Frenchman and Belgian partner Clément Geens appear among the directly admitted pairs for the Kuwait Major, scheduled for October 23–31, 2026. Their entry is a useful measure of progress, not a guarantee that the next match will be any easier.
Five other French players are on the tournament entry lists, but their paths are different. Thomas Leygue and Timéo Fonteny must navigate men's qualifying; Alix Collombon and Léa Godallier have direct women's entries with their respective partners; Louise Bahurel faces qualifying. With 2,000 ranking points available to the champions and the season's biggest names also arriving, Kuwait offers a revealing test of how far the French contingent has advanced beyond occasional headline results.
Guichard and Geens finally have a Major place they earned on ranking
The important distinction in Guichard's entry is how he reached the draw. The Frenchman has competed at this level before, including a memorable Paris Major run with Geens in September, but an invitation or qualifying route is different from making the acceptance list on accumulated ranking strength. For Kuwait, the Franco-Belgian pair is listed 38th among directly admitted teams with a combined entry weight of 1,824 points. In a men's main draw of 48 pairs, that is enough to remove the first obstacle before a ball is struck.
That improvement is supported by results rather than reputation alone. In Milan earlier this month, Guichard and Geens beat Antonio Fernández and Mario Del Castillo 6-1, 6-2 before losing a much tighter second-round contest to Eduardo Alonso and Aimar Goñi, 5-7, 6-7. A convincing opening win followed by a narrow defeat is not proof they are ready to trouble the top seeds, but it shows they can compete for longer stretches against established tour opposition.
September provided another reference point. Playing at Roland-Garros, they won their opening Paris Major match 6-0, 6-2 before encountering Juan Lebrón and Leo Augsburger. That draw was unforgiving; the result nevertheless put Guichard and Geens on a stage where many developing pairs struggle even to earn an appearance. Now their entry into Kuwait comes through the rankings rather than a home-tournament invitation.
Guichard is a left-handed player who operates on the right, while Geens plays on the left. Their contrasting roles can be useful when rallies demand both patience and decisive net pressure. The immediate challenge is to turn that familiarity into another main-draw win away from a home crowd. A direct entry saves energy and uncertainty, but it does not deliver a favorable opponent or an automatic route into the round of 16.
For a player building his position on the world circuit, repeated direct entries matter more than a single splashy upset. They make planning easier, provide exposure to stronger fields and offer more opportunities to collect the points needed to remain inside the acceptance cutoff. Kuwait is an opportunity to consolidate that change.
Leygue and Fonteny face a very different route through qualifying
Guichard's direct entry stands out partly because Thomas Leygue has no such luxury. Leygue, back inside the world's top 100 at No. 98 after a long recovery from an Achilles injury, will partner Spain's Jesús Moya in Kuwait qualifying. They are listed sixth among the qualifying pairs. Timéo Fonteny, ranked No. 118, and Spanish partner Nacho Moragues, ranked No. 100, are listed 11th. Both teams must earn their main-draw positions on court.
The difference between a direct place and qualifying is not cosmetic. Qualifying begins before the main tournament, adds extra matches and leaves little room for an untimely slow start. The Kuwait schedule places men's qualifying on October 23 and 24, with the men's first main-draw matches beginning October 25. A pair that advances has to recover quickly before meeting opponents who may have had a more predictable preparation.
Leygue has already shown he can thrive under that pressure. At September's Paris Major, he and Moya came through qualifying and reached the last 16, a breakthrough for a French player in the Major era. Their recent quarterfinal appearances at the FIP Platinum Lyon and FIP Gold Seville further support the idea that his return is producing sustainable results. But Kuwait is not simply a victory lap for a comeback story. The challenge is to repeat the performance without the momentum and support of Roland-Garros.
For Fonteny, the stakes are slightly different. A successful qualifying campaign alongside Moragues would be another signal that he can translate national and lower-tier international experience into regular Premier Padel appearances. The pair's 11th-place qualifying position leaves them outside the very top of that entry list. They will need to create their own opportunities rather than assume a favorable path.
Neither pairing needs to win the entire tournament for Kuwait to be valuable. Reaching the main draw would create a chance to test their game against the world's established combinations and collect ranking points. Missing out would not erase their progress, but the contrast with Guichard's direct admission would underline how narrow the margins remain for French men trying to establish themselves on tour.
Collombon and Godallier are in, while Bahurel must win her way through
The women's entry list gives France two directly admitted teams and one pair attempting to join them. Alix Collombon, listed at No. 37, continues with Ksenia Sharifova, listed at No. 43. They arrive with a useful result behind them: a semifinal at FIP Gold Seville, where they pushed top seeds Lucía Sainz and Letizia Manquillo to three sets before losing. That is meaningful form, but Kuwait's main draw presents a deeper field and far less margin for inconsistency.
Collombon and Sharifova have the advantage of a familiar partnership. Their next step is to convert that stability into a strong Premier Padel run. It is tempting to treat a direct entry as the finish line for a developing national program; in reality, it is the starting line for the more difficult work. Early-round draws can be demanding, and one poorly timed service game or stretch of errors can change the direction of an entire match.
Léa Godallier, ranked No. 48 in the source entry list, will play with Spain's Lucía Peralta, listed at No. 65. Their combined position puts them 29th among the directly admitted women's teams. It is a change from Godallier's recent partnership with Daiara Valenzuela, including a first-match exit in Milan. A new partner can refresh tactical options, but it also requires rapid coordination over court coverage, return positions and the decisions made when an opponent forces both players away from the net.
Louise Bahurel and Ivet Val López take the harder route. With rankings of No. 113 and No. 115 respectively, they are listed 11th in women's qualifying. Their immediate objective is straightforward: survive the preliminary rounds and secure a place among the 40 women's main-draw pairs. For Bahurel, still working toward the top 100, the opportunity is as much about learning to manage high-pressure qualifying matches as it is about the ranking points on offer.
The three French women have different measures of success. Collombon needs a main-draw run that reflects her level; Godallier needs a new partnership to settle quickly; Bahurel needs to win entry. Treating all three as the same national storyline would miss what makes their situations interesting. Kuwait will test each at the stage of her career where progress matters most.
Kuwait's 2,000-point prize raises the stakes for every French entrant
Kuwait is not an ordinary late-season stop. Its 2026 tournament has Major status, with 2,000 ranking points available to each champion. The official event information lists €1,044,849 in prize money, indoor courts and 48 men's pairs alongside 40 women's pairs in the main draws. Qualifying begins October 23, the main event gets under way over the following days, and the finals are scheduled for October 31. Those numbers explain why the entry lists matter before any draw is played.
At the top of the men's game, Arturo Coello and Agustín Tapia arrive after four consecutive titles at Paris, Rotterdam, Düsseldorf and Milan. Their consistency has widened the gap to Alejandro Galán and Federico Chingotto. In the women's competition, Gemma Triay and Delfina Brea still lead the rankings, but Ariana Sánchez and Andrea Ustero have applied fresh pressure with a run of finals and victories. The Barcelona Finals in December make every high-value stop relevant to the season's finishing order.
French players are operating on a different scale from those title contenders. For Guichard and Geens, a win or two in the main draw would be meaningful evidence that direct acceptance is becoming a repeatable standard. For Leygue and Fonteny, simply escaping qualifying would validate weeks of work. For Collombon and Godallier, making use of direct admission is the immediate priority; for Bahurel, qualification itself would be a breakthrough.
There is a tactical dimension to the tournament as well. Indoor conditions remove some of the wind and weather variables that can alter the flight of a lob or the effectiveness of an overhead shot outdoors. They do not remove the need to manage the glass, defend patiently and choose the right moment to attack the net. Against more experienced combinations, that decision-making often determines whether a promising outsider stays competitive after the opening games.
The temptation before a Major is to focus only on the eventual champions. Yet the acceptance cutoff, qualifying results and first two rounds can reveal the next group of players gaining ground. France has six names on the Kuwait entry lists, but no shared shortcut to the later rounds. The most interesting result may be whether several of them can turn entry into sustained main-draw presence rather than another isolated performance.
Direct entry is the headline for Guichard, but Kuwait will be judged by what happens after the draw opens. He and Geens have cleared a hurdle that previously required qualifying or an invitation. Leygue, Fonteny and Bahurel must still earn their places; Collombon and Godallier have the chance to begin directly against main-draw opposition.
None of these French pairs is arriving as a title favorite, and that is precisely why their performances are worth following. The sport's elite are racing for Major trophies and year-end positions. The next tier is trying to make appearances at those events routine. For Guichard, one direct Major entry can be a milestone. The larger achievement would be making it the new normal.
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