Table tennis: for the Nîmes-Montpellier Alliance, a tense wait

Coach Florian Habuda and his players, Moret, Zhu, Earley and Sawettabut, are waiting and crossing their fingers to maintain themselves without having to go through the play-downs. Midi Libre – MiKAëL ANISSET

The players of the Nîmes-Montpellier Alliance, who have finished with the regular phase, do not know if they are maintained or if they will have to go through the play-downs to renew their lease in Pro A ladies. Everything will depend on the outcome of the matches still to be played.

Wait and cross your fingers. The Nîmes-Montpellier Alliance has finished its regular season (11 matches) but it does not know in what sauce it will be eaten since not all the matches have yet been played (1).

Last Friday (January 5), in Joué-lès-Tours, Florian Habuda's daughters in any case ended their week with three matches with a third defeat (3-2), the seventh of the season.
"We are not far from winning since we still play two decisive rounds but we do not necessarily have any regrets because in these two matches, Rachel (Moret) has she was always behind in the sets she lost, notes the Nîmes coach.

To a point…

With five points collected over the last three days (1+2+2), Florian Habuda says he is "satisfied"  : "Saint-Denis and Saint-Quentin are very strong teams (for the moment 2nd and 3rd in the ranking, Editor's note) and Joué-lès-Tours never succeeds for us."< /p>

With 21 points on the clock, the Alliance, which is currently in 6th place, has not ensured its maintenance – he would have needed just one more for that – and must therefore wait for the results of its direct competitors to know its future, play-down in relaxed mode or under tension. With Schiltigheim's victory on Wednesday against Grand Quevilly (3-2), it is only in the fight with three teams: Étival-Clairefontaine (7th, 20 pts, 9 matches), Joué-lès- Tours (8th, 20 pts, 10 matches) and Argentan Bayard (9th, 16 pts, 9 matches).

Do not finish beyond 8th place

The first two have a good chance of overtaking it. To avoid finishing beyond 8th place, he must hope that Argentan Bayard does not win his last two meetings against Joué-lès-Tours and Poitiers (11th). In the event of a tie with the Ornaises, the Alliance would emerge because it beat them (3-1).

"What we have achieved is already great"

While waiting, Florian Habuda takes an initial assessment. "In this regular phase, we did the maximum with our means. Knowing that we played two matches with the Japanese Nakamichi who was not at the level, that we were only able to have our number 1 over five days, that Sawattabut is only not a hitwoman and we have one of the two weakest number 3s in the championship, what we achieved is already great."

(1) The first six will make the play-offs. The bottom six will play the play-downs but the 7th and 8th clubs will be assured of remaining. I subscribe to read more