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Dubai, UAE: Dubai-based padel tennis stars Javier Lopez and Sergio Icardo sealed the first win of the inaugural Dubai Padel Cup on Tuesday, edging out Argentine Luciana Capra, the world number 14, and Spain’s Juan Mieres to advance to the semi-finals of the exhibition match series.
After making history by serving the first competitive shot of the first-ever Dubai Padel Cup, Lopez, ranked world number 185, and Icardo, the world number 119, dispatched their higher-ranked rivals 6-3, 6-4 in just over an hour.
Bolstered by a partisan crowd at the Dubai Padel Cup’s purpose-built court at Jumeirah Emirates Towers, the NAS Sport Complex duo broke Mieres in game eight of the first set to move into a 5-3 lead, with Lopez holding serve in the next game to seal the opening set.
With His Highness Sheikh Saeed Bin Maktoum Bin Juma Al Maktoum, President of the UAE Padel Association, watching courtside, the second set followed a similar pattern with eight consecutive service holds before Mieres was broken again and Lopez served out the win.
“I want to say thank you to Sheikh Saeed for coming to support us, as he always does,” said Lopez. “It’s amazing to play in front of this crowd and it’s a privilege to play against such experienced opponents – we are really grateful for the chance to play and compete in these matches. I’ll remember the first point – and the last – for all my life!”
With the 16-man exhibition match field split into eight doubles pairings, the four winners of Tuesday’s quarterfinals will contest semis on Wednesday November 3, with the winners progressing to the final on Thursday November 4. The four losing quarterfinalists will play each other on November 3, with those winners and losers competing for places 5-8 in the overall leaderboard.
“It’s great to see our Dubai representatives putting up such an amazing show – it goes to show the strength of the city’s padel community and it was fantastic to see such fervent support for Javi and Sergio. The opening games proved a real hit with the crowd and the players; we now have real padel fiesta in store for the remaining matches,” said Ahmed Hamada, Co-Founder of the Dubai Padel Cup, which is part of this year’s Dubai Fitness Challenge.
In the other quarter-final matches, Argentina’s Fernando Poggi (world number 145) and Spain’s Javier Garrido Gomez (20) lost the first set before edging out Gonzalo Rubio Perez (37) and Brazil’s Pablo Lima (world number 10) in a super tiebreak thriller to win 3-6, 6-3, 10-8.
“I feel very good, the court and the set-up are amazing. The people are very excited, we gave them a good match. We started a little slow, but we recovered in the second set and the tie-break was very dramatic. We go step-by-step but we definitely want to win,” said Poggi.
Elsewhere, Argentine Fernando Belasteguin (5) and Spain’s Arturo Coello (17) won a super tiebreak to seal a narrow 6-4, 5-7, 10-6 victory over Argentina’s Adrian Allemandi (26) and Spain’s Jorge Nieto (21). “I’m very happy to win today, and I hope we play well in the next round. The court is very good, it’s pleasure to play here - it’s incredible. We give many thanks to Dubai for promoting padel – I want to win this.”
In the final match of the opening day, which was also decided by a super tiebreak, Spain’s Juan Lebron, the world number one, and Argentina’s Miguel Lamperti (18) saw off Spanish duo Pablo Lijo (24) and Juan Martin Diaz Martinez (26) 6-4, 5-7, 10-3.
“I love playing in Dubai – all the players are loving it,” said Lebron. “The exhibition matches are amazing, and we are definitely here to win. The court is beautiful, it’s the number one court in the world.”
Semi-final draw – Wednesday, November 3
The inaugural Dubai Padel Cup has attracted a high-quality roster of marquee partners including Dubai Fitness Challenge 2021, Emirates NBD, WHOOP, Al Tayer Motors, Valiant Clinic and Hospital, Okadoc, Barakat, Red Bull, Fade Fit, and WaterWA. To find out more about the Dubai Padel Cup, visit: www.dubaipadelcup.com
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