It was in Sarcelles in the northern suburbs of Paris that a five-year-old Oceane Babel picked up the controls to a Nintendo Wii and discovered tennis.

There are echoes of reigning Roland Garros champion Iga Swiatek, who revealed as she made her way to the Grand Slam podium in October that she had learned to play the sport on her PlayStation.

For Babel, after convincing her father, Thierry, to let her play tennis for real, she was on court with a racket in hand a matter of months later and the rest, as they say, is history.

From there, a sporting journey began to unfold and by topping the podium at JA Criciuma earlier this month, the 17-year-old reached a significant staging post in her development.

Victory at the maiden Grade A junior tournament of the season not only handed Babel the most prestigious silverware of her career, but also saw her surge into the top 10 of the girls’ rankings. It is quite amazing to think that all she has achieved stemmed from a games console.

“When I was a young girl, I was not doing any sports so my dad bought me a Nintendo Wii and I started playing Wii Sports and I really liked tennis,” Babel told itftennis.com.

“Because of this, I asked my dad if I could play tennis properly and two or three months after starting on the Nintendo Wii, I got my first racket and started playing.

“I was not very good the first year and was just missing every ball, but I really liked it, continued and started to get better and better.”

That she did, and while the Nintendo Wii served its purpose, Babel’s time for game-playing passed long ago. She is now in the market for ranking points and trophies as she dreams of following in the footsteps of her idol, 23-time Grand Slam winner Serena Williams.

However, it was the words of Serena’s elder sister, Venus, which she turned to, drew strength from and was influenced by during a closely fought semi-final showdown against Greece’s Michaela Laki in Criciuma.

Babel, who was seeded second at the event, was trailing in the match tie-break and was staring defeat firmly in the face before turning the tide in her favour with a stunning comeback. She now reveals that the motivation for that fightback stemmed from Venus.

“I met Venus after Roland Garros in 2018 when she was at the National Training Centre,” said Babel. “When I saw her, I was a little bit nervous but my coach started talking with her and she told me to come over.

“We talked and she told me not to be scared when I played. She also said, ‘big tennis, big prizes’, meaning that if I played big tennis then I would get big rewards afterwards.

“My semi-final was a super tight match tie-break and I was down 9-4 and my coach told me, ‘big tennis, big prizes’, and I thought about it and won. It’s advice I will always turn to. It’s helped me a lot already and will help me a lot going forward.”

It was the second time that tournament that Babel was required to navigate a match tie-break to keep her trophy hopes alive, having overcome Hungary’s Luca Udvardy in similar fashion in the second round.

Fortunately, for the French left-hander at least, the final against Slovakia’s Bianca Behulova was more straightforward, while her overall victory continued the momentum she had generated from reaching the last four at Porto Alegre the previous week.

The focus for Babel now turns to solidifying her position within the upper echelons of the junior rankings, showcasing her ability on some of the sport’s bigger stages and testing herself in the game’s professional ranks.

“I have put in a lot of hard work and I was very happy to win the tournament in Criciuma,” added Babel, who reached the quarter-finals at last year’s Roland Garros Junior Championships where she was defeated by Russia’s Polina Kudermetova.

“Winning in Brazil was very important because the best players in the world are playing tournaments like this. It is important to be among the best players in the world and if I am top 10 then that is very good for me.

“It is amazing to think I am one of the best junior players and I am very happy with that. From here, I have ambitions to do well at Junior Grand Slams this year but I am also going to play some ITF women’s events to try and get some WTA points.

“I imagine it will be hard but exciting to play against some older people and interesting to see how I do. Winning a Grade A tournament has given me confidence. I know I am playing well now and I feel I can do great things in these tournaments.”

The ITF World Tennis Tour Junior Finals in Chengdu, China – the prestigious year-end tournament for the eight top-ranked boys and girls on the planet – also flicker on Babel’s radar.

Qualification would hand Babel the chance to continue France’s domination in the girls’ draw following victories for Clara Burel and Diane Parry in 2018 and 2019 respectively, while last year’s event was cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Harold Mayot and Elsa Jacquemot, who both featured in Chengdu in 2019, claimed Junior Grand Slam silverware in 2020 as French junior tennis continued to thrive and flex its muscle.

Meanwhile, Toulouse-born Hugo Gaston, a junior player himself not so long ago, demonstrated how quickly a player’s career trajectory can soar after he enjoyed a breakthrough performance at Roland Garros in October.

Babel describes the aforementioned group as “an inspiration”, while looking at the recent history of French junior champions and her own progress, the gauntlet would appear to have been lain down.

Opportunity knocks for this talented teenager.