Azahara Muñoz - Photo: © P.Ballet / ASO

As every year, seventy-eight players will be at the start of the 25th edition of the Lacoste Ladies Open de France, with the ambition of succeeding Azahara Muñoz, double title holder. But the 27-year-old Spaniard, who dominated at the end of the suspense her compatriot Maria Hernandez last year, will be there to try to achieve the pass of three, something that has never been done in history. of the tournament. “I am very honored to have won such an event twice. Victory cannot be ordered, but it gives a very strong feeling. Chantaco is a course that I love and feel very comfortable on, so why not win again? " declares the nineteenth world player.

Muñoz will however have a lot to face the American star Cristie Kerr, eleventh in the world. At 37, the double Grand Slam winner (US Open 2007 and LPGA Championship 2010), who has fifteen other LPGA Tour successes, will compete in the tournament for the first time. Yet she knows Chantaco, since she came there in 2008 to celebrate the club's 80th anniversary: “The course is very difficult to negotiate because of its numerous movements of land. I can't wait to play it in tournament conditions ”, says Kerr, who like Muñoz is an ambassador for the Lacoste brand.

Finally the best French players, starting with Gwladys Nocera, the current European number one, will also be at the start to try to sign a prestigious success in their national open. The last victory of a Tricolor, that of Stéphanie Arricau in Arras in 2004, goes back more than ten years now.