LUNEL - Young French talent Maxime Panaia surprisingly won the second season's ranking tournament in France. In the final, Panaia defeated Kevin Perrotin 40-32 in 33 innings. Maxime's general average was impressive: 1.328, while he is 0.886 on the national ranking.
In the preround table to 35 points, Panaia first defeated Jacky Justice 35-12 in 18 (1.944) and Jérôme Barbeillon in 27 innings. In the quarter finals, Panaia defeated Thierry Roxo 40-37 in 32 innings and Mikaël Devogelaere in the semi-final by a narrow 40-39 in 33 innings.
Kevin Perrotin also was a surprise in this tournament. He reached the last four as the number 20 player on the ranking. Perrotin defeated Grégory le Deventec and Stany Buyle on Saturday and then was the better of Bernard Baudoin in the quarters and Jean Reverchon in the semi-finals. Perrotin's average was 1.047.