Le Tournoi de l'Espoir National de Tennis a pris fin le lundi 29 décembre dernier. Démarré le 26, sur les courts du stade Charles de Gaulles de Porto-Novo, où s'est déroulé toute la compétition, les participants ont connu diverses fortunes.
Il s'agit en effet, d'une compétition organisée par la Fédération béninoise de tennis (FBT), et motivée par plusieurs objectifs. Entre autres, préparer la relève, permettre aux joueurs de multiplier les tournois et de préparer ceux d'entre eux qui ont des tournois en vue dans la sous-région ou sur le continent.
En ce qui concerne l'édition de cette année, 89 joueurs dont 29 filles et 60 garçons y ont participé. Notamment les catégories des 12 ans et moins filles et garçons ; et 16 ans et moins filles et garçons. A l'issue, plusieurs finales ont été disputées lors de la clôture. Chez les 12 ans et moins filles, Saïzonou Gracia a battu Abigaël Dhossou en finale (6/4, Abandon). Dans la même catégorie mais chez les garçons, Ange Bébo a pris le meilleur sur Michel Allowakinnou 6/1, 6/2.
En revanche chez les 16 ans et moins filles, Honfoga Gisèle a battu Naomie Marete 6/0, 6/2 tandis que chez les garçons Bebo Juvénal a dominé Rodolphe Agoun 6/3, 6/4.
En deux sets le vainqueur dans la catégorie des 16 ans et moins garçons a expédié son adversaire, Rodolphe Agoun, qui au terme de la rencontre, a laissé entendre qu'il n'était pas dans un « beau jour ».
Pour sa part, le directeur technique national (DTN) de la FBT, Mathieu Oussou Azo a fait un plaidoyer en direction de l'instance de gestion de la balle jaune au Bénin afin qu'elle donne, à travers différents tournois, l'occasion aux joueurs de se frotter et d'être compétitifs.
Theo Von: Oh, I think it's brave to be able to speak up; sometimes if you're right or wrong, it's brave to try.
Tucker Carlson: It's our obligation to try. I was quiet for 30 years. I shouldn't have been I didn't want to fight but I shouldn't have been
Theo Von: People say like you get information wrong, but if information is given out that's wrong, then how do you expect someone to know accurate information?
The truth is that such tests are not banned--they are regulated, nor is Israel the only country that does this. The fact that such tests exist—and are widely studied—fatally undermines Carlson’s argument. He also betrays a basic ignorance of Jewish diversity. Sweeping claims about “the Jews” ignore well-documented distinctions among Ashkenazic, Sephardic, and Mizrahi populations, all of which have been extensively studied.
According to a 2001 report on the website of the National Library of Medicine
although Ashkenazi Jews were found to differ slightly from Sephardic and Kurdish Jews, it is noteworthy that there is, overall, a high degree of genetic affinity among the three Jewish communities. Moreover, neither Ashkenazi nor Sephardic Jews cluster adjacent to their former host populations, a finding that argues against substantial admixture of malesThe LA Times reported in 2010 on a study of Ashkenazic Jewish ancestry:
Carlson’s final move—arguing that the destruction of the Temple somehow severed Judaism from its own past—is just as foolish. Judaism did not end in 70 CE. It adapted, as living civilizations do. Jewish law, liturgy, language, and communal identity evolved organically from Second Temple Judaism, preserving continuity across catastrophe and exile. To suggest otherwise is not scholarship; it is historical vandalism.
But Carlson is not trying to educate. As with his claim that Benjamin Netanyahu called him a Nazi or that American taxpayers somehow “pay Netanyahu’s salary,” this is pure provocation. He gives his audience what it wants: grievance dressed up as insight, ignorance masquerading as courage.
Tucker Carlson’s performance is not merely uninformed—it is reckless. By presenting his lack of knowledge as a form of bravery, he invites his audience to confuse curiosity with certainty and skepticism with denial. Jews, Judaism, and Israel are not abstractions to be waved away with rhetorical questions and conspiratorial shrugs. They are among the most thoroughly documented continuities in human history. Carlson’s failure to grasp that is not a moral stand. It is a choice—and one that trades truth for applause.