Game, set, match and championship. These seven days with the highest level padel at Roland Garros came to an end after the last point of the Greenweez Paris Premier Padel Majorthe first championship of this magnitude in a setting that is a temple of world sport, home to tennis legends on clay.
The contest ended up being for Juan Lebron y Alexander Galanthe Spanish duo that on paper started as the favorites to end up becoming champions at the Philippe Chatrier, the renovated and wonderful central court of RG, which hosted a total of more than 25,000 people from the first qualifying rounds until this game. Sunday.
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 who came to encourage the leaders of the world ranking.
On the other side, the Argentines Juan Tello y Federico Chingotto”they were on top”, as the Spanish colleagues were heard to say in the press area. They put up a fight with a delivery worthy of applause, but they will have to settle for having reached the final of a Major 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 a first set that they had to run from behind, the Argentines leveled the match and fought until the last point.
After eight seasons together, which characterizes them as the longest-lasting couple on the circuit, the one from Cruz del Eje and the one from Olavarría had a great tournament, a feeling that became clear on Saturday when they beat Di Nenno and Navarro, who came of being champions in Doha and runners-up in Italy, the two Majors that preceded this one in Paris.
But against Lebrón and Galán things did not look easy. “They are the best combination that exists”, the Argentine coach Mariano Anmat, the brains behind this duo that combines a good age (they are 27 and 26 years old, respectively), power, talent, had warned a few months ago, in the Olé newspaper. , tactical order and a chemistry that in this discipline is essential to crown success.
Lebrón and Galán, over the net, a trend throughout the game.
The only weak point of the Spaniards is their temperament, although the work of the entire team that surrounds them, including sports psychologists, seems to be bearing fruit because they have been imposing their hierarchy over the adversities of the game itself or the atmosphere of the matches.
The best example was given on Saturday, in the semis, when they swept Stupaczuk and Lima off the field in just 40 minutes of the game, giving up just one game. And in the final… the final was a chapter apart and different from all of them.
Chingotto and Tello left everything and much more on the main court at Roland Garros.
A real match
The superiority of Lebrón and Galán was marked from the beginning, winning the initial game to zero. The Argentines managed to equalize, with a great Chingotto. But the Spaniards insisted with their voracious attack and prodigious resistance every time they had to return. Thus they went from game to game despite some touches of great quality from Tello.
With the score down 1-4 and Tello serving, the Argentines’ attempt to slow down the match was clear. And it worked.
However, from that partial 2-4 to 3-6 that ended up liquidating the first set, a sigh passed. And the feeling that Lebrón and Galán were not having that “bad day” necessary to be able to defeat them. It was 27 minutes according to statistics, and just one break away. But the key data was the number of points won: 28 for the Spaniards against just 18 for the Argentines.
The second set served as a sample to pay respect to the character and tenacity of the Argentines. Instead of mentally breaking down and succumbing to their opponent’s dominance, they went out to fight as if they were tied at zero. That was how they got 1-0 up, 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 cost Tello and Chingotto blood, sweat and tears, read points worthy of going viral; Lebrón and Galán obtained it with amazing naturalness, for example hitting from the baseline and taking the ball out with incredible angles and power.
The Argentines did not surrender and to that attitude they added the necessary effectiveness in this type of definitions. They had a set point and did not hesitate: it was 6-4 after 40 minutes of stick and stick, taking the final to a third set.
The third set began with the same intensity as the second, another point in favor of the Argentines, who were not confirmed by fighting but went for the match. Tello kept his serve and the last point came after taking the ball out, and the Argentines were up on the scoreboard for the first time.
A paddle tennis match, as happens with tennis, is full of details. And the seventh game was full of points that could have gone to one side or the other, such as a crossed passing by Galán that led to the advantage for the Spaniards and the break after another impossible point.
With the 3-4, there was a sensation of a game on track for the Spanish, intractable with the serve. It was thus that it came to 4-5 with the serve of Ale Galán, who did not take long to settle the match. The Spanish, like Rafa, owned Roland Garros
an unforgettable week
It is the end of an unforgettable week, which coincided with the celebrations on Thursday the 14th for France’s National Day, on a new anniversary of the Taking of the Bastille. That night, the start of fireworks by the Eiffel Tower coincided almost exactly with the end of a match 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 boys who could be his sons (among them, his partner Arturo Coello, 20). As in a movie, this padel legend clenched his fist in anger and celebrated with relief after three battle sets, while the sky was lit up by the noise. It was the gift from Paris for “Bela”, who the next day could do little against Lebrón and Galán and retired content with having been animated by the fight.
Stories left by the padel adventure through Roland Garros, and that will be present again at the end of November when Premier Padel takes its fourth Major of the year to Monterrey, Mexico, the country where Enrique Corcuera had the idea of creating this sport that he returned with everything after the pandemic. Before that, the calendar marks a first fortnight of August marked with two P1 level tournaments: from August 1 to 6, the appointment will be in Madrid; and from the 8th to the 14th of that month another one will be held in Mendoza.
From Paris. Special delivery.
