Océane Babel

Babel started playing tennis at five years old after practicing on the Nintendo Wii. After joining the Sarcellois Tennis Club in Val d'Oise, she became France under-13 champion in 2017 and repeated the performance the following year in the under-14 category. She then moved to the National Training Center (CNE) of the Federation in September 2018 where she began to be coached by Noëlle van Lottum.^[1][2]

Babel reached the quarterfinals of the girls' singles draw at the 2020 French Open in which she was defeated by Polina Kudermetova. She then won the opening Grade-A junior tournament of the 2021 season, in Criciúma, Brazil.^[3]

In May 2021, she had a junior world ranking of number seven.^[4] That month, Babel was awarded a wildcard into the 2021 French Open, marking her singles debut at major level, losing to Elina Svitolina in the first round.^[5] She played the girls' singles at the 2021 Wimbledon Championships, and www the only French player in the girls' singles draw. She won 6-4, 3-6, 7-6(7-4) in the first round against the Slovakian Radka Zelnickova, before being drawn against the Belarusian Evialina Laskevich in the second round.^[6]

In March 2022, she won an ITF doubles tournament in Amiens alongside compatriot Lucie Nguyen Tan.^[7] In May 2022, she defeated Alice Ramé and Ekaterine Gorgodze, to reach the third round of qualifying for the 2022 French Open, before facing Oksana Selekhmeteva.^[8]