Padel at Roland Garros: the Argentines played a great match but the final went to the Spanish duo

Game, set, match and championship. These seven days with the highest level padel at Roland Garros ended after the last point of the Greenweez Paris Premier Padel Majorthe first championship of this magnitude in an environment that is a temple of world sport, home of the legends of tennis on clay.

The contest ended for Juan Lebron Y Alessandro Galanthe Spanish duo who on paper started as a favorite and then became champion at Philippe Chatrier, the renovated and wonderful central courtyard of the RG, which hosted a total of over 25,000 people from the first qualifying rounds to this Sunday match.

There, under the same roof where Rafa Nadal celebrated a month and a half ago, now no longer on the orange clay but on a blue folder and surrounded by blindex, Lebrón and Galán made a crowd vibrate, especially to the good number of Spanish spectators which came to encourage the leaders of the world rankings.

On the other, the Argentines Juan Tello Y Federico Chingotto “they were at the top “, as the Spanish colleagues heard in the press area. They argued with a delivery of applause, but they will have to be content with having reached the Major final for the first time, and to continue working to take advantage of the next opportunity, they have to take another step in their ascending career.

After eight seasons together, which characterizes them as the longest-running duo on the circuit, Cruz del Eje and Olavarría played a great tournament, a feeling that became clear on Saturday when they beat Di Nenno and Navarro, who became champion at Doha and second in Italy, the two majors that preceded this one in Paris.

But against Lebrón and Galán things didn’t seem easy. “They are the best combination that exists”, had warned the Argentine coach Mariano Anmat a few months ago, the brain of this duo that combines good age (they are respectively 27 and 26 years old), power, talent, in the newspaper Olé. , tactical order and alchemy that in this discipline is fundamental to crown success.

The only weak point of the Spaniards is their temperament, even if the work of the whole team around them, including sports psychologists, seems to bear fruit because they have imposed their hierarchy on the adversities of the game itself or on the atmosphere of the game. matches.

The best example was given on Saturday, in the semifinals, when they swept Stupaczuk and Lima off the pitch in just 40 minutes of play, giving up just one game. And in the finale … the finale was a separate chapter different from all of them.

A real match

The superiority of Lebrón and Galán was marked from the start, winning the opening game by zero. The Argentines managed to equalize, with a great Chingotto. But the Spaniards persisted with their voracious attack and prodigious resistance whenever they had to return. So they went from game to game despite a few high-quality touches from Tello.

With the score down 1-4 and Tello serving, the Argentines’ attempt to slow play is clear. And it worked.

From that 2-4 to 3-6 run that ended up liquidating the first set, however, a sigh passed. And the feeling that Lebrón and Galán weren’t having that “bad day” needed to be able to defeat them. It was 27 minutes according to the statistics and just a break. But the key figure was the number of points won: 28 for the Spaniards against just 18 for the Argentines.

The second set served as a champion to pay homage to the character and tenacity of the Argentines. Instead of mentally collapsing and succumbing to their opponent’s domination, they went out to fight as if they were zero. So it was that they went 1-0, 2-1, 3-2, 4-3 and 5-4 later, raising the temperature of a Philippe Chatrier eager to see more and more padel.

But what it cost Tello and Chingotto blood, sweat and tears, points read worthy of going viral; Lebrón and Galán achieved it with incredible ease, for example by hitting from the baseline and taking out the ball with incredible angles and power.

The Argentines did not give up and added to that attitude the necessary effectiveness in this type of definition. They had a set point and they didn’t hesitate: it was 6-4 after 40 minutes of stick and stick, taking the final to the third set.

The third set started with the same intensity as the second, another point in favor of the Argentines, who did not confirm themselves fighting but went for the match. Tello kept his serve and the last point came after clearing the ball, and the Argentines were on the scoreboard for the first time.

A paddle tennis match, like tennis, is full of details. And the seventh game was full of points that could have gone one way or the other, like a Galán cross pass that led to the advantage for the Spaniards and the break after another impossible point.

With the 3-4 you have the feeling of a match on the track for the Spaniard, intractable with the service. Thus it was that we arrived at 4-5 with the service of Ale Galán, who did not take long to fix the game. The Spaniards, like Rafa, owned Roland Garros

an unforgettable week

It is the conclusion of an unforgettable week, which coincided with the celebrations of Thursday 14 for the French National Day, in a new anniversary of the storming of the Bastille. That night, the start of the Eiffel Tower fireworks almost exactly coincided with the end of a game at Roland Garros.

It was the victory in the round of 16 for Pehueajense Fernando Belasteguin, who at 43 is still fighting on the circuit against children who could be his children (among them, his teammate Arturo Coello, 20). Like in a movie, this padel legend clenched his fist in anger and celebrated with relief after three battle sets, while the sky was lit with noise. It was Paris’ gift for “Bela”, who the next day could do little against Lebrón and Galán and retired happy to have been animated by the fight.

Stories left by the adventure of the padel through Roland Garros, and which will be present again at the end of November when the Premier Padel will bring his fourth Major of the year to Monterrey, Mexico, the country where Enrique Corcuera had the idea of ​​creating the sport that is back with everything after the pandemic. Before then, the calendar marks a first fortnight in August marked by two P1 level tournaments: from 1 to 6 August the appointment will be in Madrid; and from the 8th to the 14th of that month another will be held in Mendoza.

From Paris. Special delivery.