Doha, Qatar: Favourites Spain and Argentina continued to dominate men’s and women’s divisions of the FIP World Padel Championships on Tuesday, while hosts Qatar suffered their second consecutive loss.
At the Khalifa International Tennis & Squash Complex, Argentina – the most successful nation in the history of Padel World championships, and Spain – the title-holders - recorded clean sweeps against USA and UAE respectively. However, Qatar, who went down to Chile on Day 1 of the prestigious event, lost in straight sets yesterday to France, who came third in the previous edition of the tournament.
In a seemingly one-sided clash in Group B, Spanish men swept past UAE, with the world’s top pair Juan Lebron and Arturo Coello opening with a strong 6-1, 6-2 victory over S Icardo and I Jofre.
World No 3 Alejandro Galan and Miguel Yanguas followed with a hard-fought win against F Jurado and A Ayats to secure a 6-4, 7-5 result. Francisco Navarro and Jorge Sanz completed the sweep, blanking F Al Janahi and M Al Janahi with a 6-0, 6-0 win in just 33 minutes.
Argentina also followed in a similar fashion in Group A. In the opening match, Agustin Tapia and Federico Chingotto set the tone with a flawless 6-0, 6-0 win over M Segura and S. Castaneda Rubio.
C D Gutierrez and L Augsburger continued Argentina’s winning streak with a 6-3, 6-3 win against V Di Francesco and N Agritelley. V G Libaak and A Chozas defeated R Ruiz Alvarez and W Agritelley 6-1, 6-3 to complete the sweep.
In Group C, France’s men’s team was too good for Qatar in their second match of the Championships. Jeremy Bergeron and Thomas Vanbauce overcame Abdulla Alhijji and Mohammed Abdulla 6-0, 6-1 in 51 minutes in Game 1. Maxime Joris and Bastien Blanque followed up with an impressive 6-1, 6-1 performance over Mohamed Al Khanji and Mohamed Saadon Al Kuwari, before Thomas Leygue and Theo Fonteny took down Ahmed Hassan and Jabor Al Mutawa with a score of 6-0, 6-1 in 36 minutes.
In other key encounters yesterday, Brazil beat Netherlands 3-0 while Chile won 2-1 against Uruguay.
On the women’s side too, Spain and Argentina continued their winning streaks to jump to the top of their respective groups, while Italy and France also remain unbeaten.
Yesterday morning, France prevailed over the Netherlands 3-0, Belgium defeated Denmark 3-0, Sweden overcame Uruguay 3-0, and Italy won 3-0 against Japan.
Portugal also made a clean sweep against USA, while Brazil fought back to beat Germany 2-1.
