Louis Laville is living the pickleball dream in Australia.
He’s just been drafted to the Bondi Pickleball Club in Major League Pickleball, joining team-mates Roos van Reek, Max Manthou and Kat Westbury.
Louis describes his time in Australia thus far as “absolutely amazing” – and he’s ventured further afield to New Zealand and Vietnam, where he won bronze in the men’s doubles with Ben Cawston.
He then headed home to Europe for the English OPEN and the Swedish Open.
“I was really happy to come away with two golds, in men’s doubles and mixed doubles, playing with Ben Cawston and Katie Morris, who are obviously both on Team England for the European Championships,” he says.
It bodes well for Rome later in the month.
“This year, England have a very strong team – the strongest eight players that could have been picked, I think, for the 18+ team. We also have a really strong 50+ team, so hopefully they can go on a run.
“But there are also a lot of strong European countries this year. Roos [van Reek], she’s playing for Holland. Domenika Turkovic is playing [for Croatia]. You’ve got people from Hungary who are unbelievable players, like Bako Balint. You’ve got some really good Spanish players. Spain are a very strong team this year.
“On the whole it’s going to be hugely competitive and a lot of fun.”
England go in, of course, as defending champions – meaning all the players are aware there’s something of a target on their backs.
“There’s always an element of pressure going into it – we all want to win and retain that trophy,” he says.
“But we are a team that want to play our best on the court and not overthink it when not on the court, so we’ll definitely head to Rome, compete hard, do our best, but most of all enjoy the experience, as it is an honour and not a regular thing to compete for your country!”
Really looking forward to the European Pickleball Championships. We learned from Spain and Italy that we need to bring lots of cheerleaders to make some noise, so we encourage English players going out to the pre-EPC tournament to stay and cheer our team on. Let’s make some noise!