What a tournament! The Head Padel Open Real Padel Sophia Club offered a great tournament padel concluded with a beautiful final and beautiful winners: Robin Haziza and Jose David Sanchez.

A player in the tournament: Jose David Sanchez

Certainly the man of the match, the Spanish Jose David Sanchez, the No. 97th player in the world (Ranking of World Padel Tour) was simply dazzling, offering hits from another world.

Associated with Robin Haziza, the French champion of padel, the Franco-Spanish pair were the tournament favorites and held onto their rank.

Yet the tournament was not so easy with the final that could have turned ...

An already decisive first set

In the first set, the French pair surprises tournament favorites by starting with a beating shot. No foul, very aggressive, smashes that fly, in short, we see this famous pair that made a strong impression there are 2 weeks in Beausoleil in the semifinals against the Spanish pair (and winner of the event).

But here, opposite, Robin Haziza begins to adjust his shots with more and more precision while the Sanchez goes into "Lamperti" mode. The gunner will begin to pierce the defense despite the good defenses of the French.

Tactically, Jérémy Ritz tries to fit in the diagonal of Robin Haziza while Jérémy Scatena varies by breaking his diagonal to avoid this very dangerous Spanish. The problem is that Robin Haziza is also very punchy and Jose David Sanchez does not hesitate to take balls in the camp of his partner.

On the wire, Haziza / Sanchez breake at the worst moments to win this first set 7 / 5.

A second one-way set

In the second set, there is no match. The French make a perfect set while the French-Spanish pair abdicates quickly after a poorly set set to focus on the set decisive.

Again, we see a level of play per moment on the Ritz / Scatena side very high. We feel that there are things that take place on their side.

A fatal 3e set

In the 3e set, the French make more mistakes while the French-Spanish pair serves the game. Break of entry for the favorites of the competition. The mistake made perhaps by the French is to have tried to accelerate the game with used balls. The smashes of Jérémy Scatena did not go out anymore and even turned into caviar for the opposing defense. Time to realize that the tactics were not the right one, the French found themselves led 5 games 1 in the decisive set.

Another mistake may be: The French began to play too much on Spanish. They often suffered the consequences. This is explained by the beautiful performance of Robin Haziza that we see more and more accurate shots. The work of Robin pays in Barcelona and he too is on a very good momentum including his recent great performance with Alex Corretja.

Too bad not to see him during the next French championship of padel 2017. he will be absent from this competition. He nevertheless remains in the race for the European Championships of padel, since the FFT has granted the coach of the France team, Patrick Fouquet, the possibility of choosing a part of the team.

The French are therefore faced with a double break (5 / 1). However, Scatena / Ritz clings and even manages to break the service of Robin Haziza. Unfortunately, it will be a sword in the water as Sanchez / Haziza concludes his match with a new fatal break.

A little regret?

Maybe for the French pair who was not far from creating the feat in this match. First in this first set where she leads 3 games to 1. Then in this beginning of 3e set where Haziza / Sanchez realizes a break that hurts 2 / 0. Some missed opportunities and some mistakes for the French at key moments.

A very positive match for the French pair

But this lost match of the French is actually very positive for the future, because losing in 3 sets against Robin Haziza, one of the best French players and the world champion of padel Under-23 Jose David Sanchez shows that the Scatena / Ritz pair are on the right track for the future.

Final Score: 7 / 5 1 / 6 6 / 2

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Franck Binisti

Franck Binisti discovers the padel at the Club des Pyramides in 2009 in the Paris region. Since padel is part of his life. You often see him touring France going to cover the major events of padel French.

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