Tapia and Coello swept the La Rioja Open

SPECIAL ENVOY – Agustín Tapia from Catamarca and Arturo Coello from Spain became champions yesterday in the province of La Rioja where the second World Padel Tour tournament of the season took place. The pair were vastly superior to their rivals Valentino Libaak and Leonardo Augsburger, who were in their first final, beating them 6-1 and 60 in just over 40 minutes.

In addition, the man from Catamarca, who was applauded by the more than 13,000 people who filled the La Rioja Superdome, was chosen as the best player in the final and in the tournament. Through tears he thanked his family and pointed out that consecrating himself in La Rioja brought back memories of his beginnings in paddle tennis.

The match was only even until the fourth game of the first set. Since Tapia and Coello took advantage of the first break option to make a difference on the scoreboard and go 3-1 up, the game was a monologue. Then with Arturo Coello’s serve they confirmed the advantage to get 4-1. When they resumed with Libaak’s serve, Tapia and Coello would take advantage of the rival’s mistakes and with a great shot by Tapia they would be left with the rival’s service game at 0. Thus they would be placed 5 to 1 and serve. Another clean game would mark the end of the first set with 6-1 in favor of Tapia and Coello. In the second set, it was again all from Catamarca and the Spaniard who did not let their rivals win a game to close the overwhelming result with 6-1 and 6-0. About the end, an emotional Tapia received a standing ovation and pointed out that “it was a dream” what he experienced throughout the week.

While the WPT organization reported that there was a record attendance for a paddle tennis tournament yesterday with 13,800 spectators. Throughout the tournament, more than 55,000 people attended, marking a resounding success.