You will forgive the XNUMX-year-old who writes these lines for the following sentence: at the end of the afternoon, the central court of Roland-Garros looked like a luxury nursing home in the padel high-level Argentinian. The oldest resident, Juan Martin Diaz, will be 48 years old on November 28; his roommate, Miguel Lamperti, will celebrate his 45th birthday on November 11. As for their coach and sometimes caregiver, Maxi Grabiel, he has just celebrated his 47th birthday on August 12.

This trio with whitening hair may display almost 140 years in cumulative age, it still has plenty to teach the best French players a lesson... and even surprise young wolves in the world. padel world, as was the case this Tuesday against Chozas and Cepero.

A warm-up time

This Wednesday against Federico Chingotto and Paquito Navarro, Lamperti and Diaz still needed some warm-up time, like an older generation diesel on a winter morning in Patagonia. In the first set, the No. 4 seed unfolded his padel, making short work of the 47th and 111th players in the FIP ranking (6/1).

But after having negotiated with the referee the possibility of coming to mop his forehead after each end of the game, even during the games, Miguel Lamperti has found the smash of his 30 years! Helped by an ambient temperature of 33 degrees in the shade and boiling hot windows, the Argentinian touched the peaks with his “remates liftados” (lifted smashes), to the point of allowing his team to come off 3/0.

Juan Martin Diaz was obviously not to be outdone, the “señor de los reflejos” rewarding the public with some of the flamboyant counters of which he has the secret. But when it comes to counterattacks, Chingotto and Navarro are not fools either. Returning to 3/1, “super raccoon” and Paco in turn blocked a smash from Lamperti and a laser volley from Diaz, freezing their opponents in place and obtaining the break.

A boost later, the favorites won a second break in a row and a fourth game in a row to lead 4/3, serve to follow. We then thought "los viejos" condemned to applaud their younger brothers, but there again, it was bad to know the combativeness of this nonagenarian duo (always in accumulation).

And Lamperti forgot himself

Without sticking their tongues out, Lamperti and Diaz came back to score and gave themselves the chance to play a tie-break and, who knows, a possible third set. But the Navarro / Chingotto pair did not hear it that way and came away 6 points to 3, with two services to follow from Fede. Here again, these two match points were erased by the elders, in style.
And on the third, Miguel Lamperti hit a smash that his opponents should never have seen again. Except that the Bahia Blanca player, all in his emotion to return to 6/6, forgot himself a little: or at least he forgot to lift his shot, so that it remained low enough to be countered. Paquito Navarro, already at the net, did not hesitate to conclude the game with a par 4 backhand, a shot he mastered to perfection. Final score 6/1 7/6 (5).

Sport is cruel: while the winners will meet Bautista and Munoz tomorrow in the round of 8, Diaz and Lamperti will return to their air-conditioned room, with instructions to drink a lot to avoid dehydration...

After 40 years of tennis, Jérôme falls into the pot of padel in 2018. Since then, he thinks about it every morning while shaving… but never shaves pala in hand! Journalist in Alsace, he has no other ambition than to share his passion with you, whether you speak French, Italian, Spanish or English.

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