Lauren Baltayan and Melvil Scianimanico are invited to the party
Invited by the organizers, 17-year old Lauren Baltayan and 19-year old Melvil Scianimanico will have the privilege of participating to the Paris Squash 2024 in a few weeks. We tell you a little bit more about these two bright prospects of French squash.
WHERE WERE THEY A YEAR AGO?
Melvil Scianimanico and Lauren Baltayan had deservedly attracted some attention during the summer of 2023, following their run at the World Junior Championship in Melbourne – where they were bronze medalist and quarter-finalist, respectively. Even if they had not taken part in the Paris Squash 2023, these two great prospects of French squash had obviously attended the event. The Franco-Egyptian had already received a wildcard in the Black Ball Open a few months earlier, and was therefore ineligible in the French capital.
Melvil Scianimanico had attended the Paris Squash 2023 with his father Thierry (Photo credit: Paris Squash Project)
As for Melvil, perhaps a little tired after his superb Australian campaign, he exited in the group stage during the wildcard playoff granting awarding one of the two spots in the main draw. “Being here really makes me want to improve so I can play this event one day, but I am aware I am gonna to be patient,” he had told us at the Palais de Tokyo. As it turned out, not so much...
THEIR STORY
Even if most of French squash aficionados discovered Lauren Baltayan at the end of 2016 in Chartres, during a U11 National Championship she had comprehensively won, her first encounter with French squash had actually happened two years earlier. “It was at the PSA World Championship in Cairo,” says Philippe Signoret. “Camille Serme was playing and we heard some ‘Allez Camille’ from the stands! After the match, a couple with two children, based in Cairo, came to speak to us in perfect French: the mother was born in the East of France and the father was Egyptian with Armenian roots. The next day, I hit with Lauren, who was only 6 years old at the time, I saw straight away that she was talented and since then we stayed in touch even if she continued to train overthere.” Over the years, Lauren has established herself as the best French player of her generation, and one of the best at international level. Among her achievements in juniors, there are two bronze medals at the prestigious British Junior Open and a silver medal at the U19 European Championship this year. Talent has nothing to do with age, and in 2023 Lauren became the youngest European player ever to win a PSA tournament - on her 16th birthday – and has already established herself in the French senior national team.
Lauren Baltayan and Melvil Scianimanico made French squash history together a few months ago, helping the U19 team to get the title at the European Championship (Photo credit: IMPhoto)
Son a good player, who took up squash late but was runner-up at the O55 World Championship in 2022, Melvil Scianimanico hit his first balls at the age of 4 at the Stade Français. It didn't take long for him to get noticed, with a first individual National Championship title in U13 in 2018. Several others would follow, as well as numerous national team caps. Even if he was far from being unknown, Melvil had kind of a breakthrough on the international scene in the summer of 2023, joining the select club of French players who grabbed some silverware at the World Junior championship – along the likes of Thierry Lincou, Isabelle Stoehr, Grégory Gaultier, Camille Serme and Victor Crouin, who would all break the world top 10s and beyond later in their careers. He carried the momentum forward on the PSA Challenger Tour in the 2023-24 season, notably with an amazing run to the final at the Batch Open in Paris. He recently clinched his first PSA title in Australia which took him to 120 in the world rankings.
TRUE FIGHTERS
Don't be fooled by her 5ft height and her shyness off the court – Lauren Baltayan is not a big fan of interviews... She is full of energy on the court, and thanks to her amazing speed she is already a threat to players ranked in the world top 50.
Her determination on the court is one of Lauren Baltayan’s main assets (Photo credit: British Junior Open)
Melvil Scianimanico is also renowned for his physical abilities, but rather on the stamina side. Like for his father Thierry, there was at some point rumors that he liked being 2-0 down and winning matches in 5 … But the young man from Paris has developed his game during his time at Clermont-Ferrand under the tutelage of Christophe Carrouget, and has become a complete player.
SEASON OF CHANGE
2024-2025 will be a season of change, both for Lauren Baltayan and Melvil Scianimanico. The former is moving to Paris, to train alongside Camille Serme and Philippe Signoret. Even if her first full-time season on the PSA Tour was promising, she could have gone even higher than 76 in the world ranking is a few close losses had turned into wins, and that is to develop her game and make some leaps that Lauren decided to leave Egypt.
After 3 seasons in Clermont-Ferrand, Melvil Scianimanico will be training in Aix-en-Provence alongside Renan Lavigne (Photo credit: Jérôme Elhaïk)
As far as he goes, Melvil moved from Clermont-Ferrand, where he had 3 very successful seasons alongside Christophe Carrouget, to join the National Centre at Aix-en-Provence where he will be supervised by Renan Lavigne. “I cannot wait!” he said to us when asked how he felt about opening a new chapter of his life as a full-time professional player.
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