It was an open secret.
Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, 42, was appointed Friday morning to the post of general manager of the French Tennis Federation (FFT).
With a CV as long as Federer's track record.
A high-level player until she was 18 and ranked 251st in the world, the successor of Jean-François Vilotte then embarked on a professional Grand Slam (Sciences-po, ESSEC, master's degree in law, ENA in the promotion Senghor of President Macron, Court of Auditors, ten years at AXA and twenty-seven months at Carrefour).
She had campaigned on the list of Gilles Moretton (Together for another tennis), elected president of the FFT on February 13.
Tried to be Minister of Sports in 2017, the wife of Frédéric Oudéa, CEO of Société Générale, mother of three boys, also took the head of the association Rénovons le sport français.
Thanks to @g_moretton and the @FFTennis Comex for their trust.
It is a source of pride for me to run this beautiful house that I have loved for a long time.
With all its teams, we will work with energy, method and passion to develop and promote our sport💪🎾💚 https://t.co/buy8zPbrfj
- Amélie Oudéa-Castéra (@ AOC1978) March 5, 2021
"I am very happy and very proud to be a woman at the head of this federation that I know really well and in a stadium whose alleys I was very young," she explained during her first virtual press briefing.
I want to take care of this house.
I first left to be elected but I listened to my deep desire.
With a certain freedom, I left the golds of the executive committees of the CAC 40 groups to listen to my guts and my passion.
If there's a time to shake things up, it's now!
"
The 40-year-old insisted on the three main axes of her roadmap: the development of the practice and support for clubs in difficulty by relying on the recovery plan of the previous term and on government aid mechanisms, the appointment in the coming days of an interim national technical director to set up “a new model and a new route” for the high level and the organization of major events, starting with Roland-Garros.
"We are leaving with the will to maintain the dates of Roland-Garros"
"We start with the desire to maintain the dates
(Editor's note: May 17 - June 6)
and we will soon be marketing a first tranche of tickets for the leagues and certain categories of staff," she explains.
Subsequent installments will be carried out over time, in agreement with the health authorities, the ministry, the town hall of Paris, the prefecture.
I am in contact with all the stakeholders to provide maximum reassurance about our protocols.
We will try to maximize the gauge as the situation allows us to do.
"
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All the assumptions are on the large desk of the new DG.
"We will already have the great novelty of the night sessions which are an opportunity compared to our ability to segment the public," she continues.
For the rest, it's premature.
We have a range of scenarios, no idea is off limits.
We have to find the best compromise between sport and health.
"
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The former doubles partner of Amélie Mauresmo also wants to promote the Roland-Garros stadium beyond the French Open.
In particular to derive an additional source of income.
“We have a very good stadium and it must not live fully for two weeks and nothing for 50 weeks, she says.
We can imagine catering, services, business seminars.
Many are looking for this kind of exceptional, unique place.
It is nevertheless a stadium which inspires the surpassing of oneself, the competition… ”