ShareBy Abdellatif Sharaa & Ghadeer Ghloum
KUWAIT: The Kuwait Premier Padel P1 tournament concluded Sunday night with standout performances in both the men’s and women’s finals. In the men’s final, Arturo Coello and Agustin Tapia overcame Franco Stupaczuk and Mike Yanguas in straight sets, 6-4 6-2. In the women’s final, Ariana Sanchez and Paula Josemaria edged out Gemma Triay and Claudia Fernandez in a nail-biting contest lasting two hours and 12 minutes. Sanchez and Josemaria triumphed 7-5 7-6, clinching the second set through a tiebreak (7-1).
The men’s final match was somewhat close in the first set, and the games were taking longer to be decided, but in the second set, things went southwards for Stupaczuk and Yanguas as their serve was broken twice, allowing Coello and Tapia to cruise to victory.
Stupaczuk and Yanguas were able to eliminate Fede Chingotto and Ale Galan in the semifinals. Coello-Tapia won 55 percent of the points and converted 60 percent of breakpoints, while the losing team converted none. No double faults, as the winners had 66 percent of the points on the first serve and 67 percent on the second serve. They also won 41 percent of points on the first return.
In the women’s final match, Sanchez and Josemaria had 55 percent of the points against 45 percent for their opponents, Gemma Triay and Claudia Fernandez. Sanchez-Josemaria won the match after resorting to a tiebreak in the second set, which was decided by Sanchez-Josemaria by the score of 7-1. There were no double faults in the match, but the breakpoints were 36 percent in favor of Sanchez-Josemaria, while the points won on second serve were dominated by Sanchez-Josemaria by 90 percent to 60 percent for Triay-Fernandez.
Sanchez-Josemaria won 51 percent of first returns, as the opponents had 46 percent. Total points won on serve were 59 percent against 49 percent, while total points won on return were 51 percent against 41 percent. It was a highly exciting match that was up to its potential, as the players gave all that they had.
Queens of the FIP ranking
With the ninth title of their fantastic season, Josemaria and Sanchez have made themselves unreachable: The two Spanish champions are now also arithmetically certain to end the season at the top of the world ranking. Triay and Fernandez, number 3 and number 4, respectively, also tried in Kuwait to stop Josemaria and Sanchez, but after two hours and 12 minutes they had to bow out with a score of 7-5, 7-6.
“I have no words. At the beginning of the week, I didn’t know if I would be able to play because of a knee problem, and for that, I also thank the medical staff for treating me every day. Thank you, Ari. I’m really happy to be by your side. Not only the certainty of finishing at number 1 in 2024, but also title number 36 as a pair for Josemaria and Sanchez: a huge number,” explained Paula.
