The 2015 season of World Padel Tour comes to an end and will end this week in Madrid with the biggest tournament of padel in the world: The Padel Master of Madrid, tournament bringing together the 8 best male and female pairs of the year 2015.

If this year of padel was exciting, the players are already looking towards 2016 and a lot of pair changes will occur for the new season. What is surprising is that it is becoming a habit since already at the end of last year, there had been a great upheaval.

If Fernando Belasteguin and Pablo Lima, undisputed world numbers will not change their habits, the pursuers are trying to organize to upset the hierarchy next year.

These numerous changes are therefore necessarily and directly linked to the excessive domination of Bela / Lima, winners of 11 tournaments out of the 12 they have contested together. And still… Their only defeat was by abandonment following the injury of Lima in Barcelona. Not to mention the two other WPTs won by Belasteguin with Willy Lahoz during the absence of Lima.

It seems clear that all the changes that will occur for this 2016 season have been very strongly oriented by this undivided domination and that players seem to be trying to find the best compromise / partner to try to stop the machine to win that are Bela and Lima.

Let's zoom in on the official changes and our ideas on these changes:

Juan Martin Diaz / Cristian Gutierrez:

It is surely 2 of the most talented players of the circuit who will associate and this may be very spectacular and a treat for fans of the beautiful game. Cristian Gutierrez returns to the left definitively since it will play with a southpaw who does not play never to the right. He never played with a southpaw. We expect everything with these two artists very well known to the public.

If we can expect that there will be magic on the grounds next year with these 2 phenomena, it seems difficult that they are able to compete with Bela and Lima. First on a physical level (40 years for Diaz and 39 for Gutierrez) because it may be difficult for them to maintain the physical intensity necessary throughout the season to play the leading roles. In addition, Gutierrez will have to play on the left side which is not his best performing side of play (Even if he has already proven in the past that he could play this role).

Juani Mieres / Miguel Lampertti :

A very strong pair of pure attackers who have played together before. No doubt that with this pair their opponents will have to be very precise in terms of lobs because the smashs may snap on the 2016 tracks with these 2 players. The key to their success will surely depend on Mieres' ability to readjust to play on the right side of the track after playing for many years on the left with Lima and then Sanyo this year.

Other likely explosive changes

Other notable new associations include: Silingo / Allemandi, a pair that seems very homogeneous and complementary with the firepower of Silingo on the left and the Germani metronome game.

The new pair Poggi / Munoz also has a profile similar to that of Silingo / Allemandi and should play the leading roles in 2016. The other notable changes concern the end of the association of the legendary Gaby Recca and Seba Nerone who decided to separate and will team respectively with Elias Estrella and Frederico Quiles. While all these pairs will be interesting to follow, it seems complicated for these new associations to be able to challenge the supremacy of Bela and Lima.

Other pairs have not yet officially announced their collaboration at the moment but it will not be long and not least:

Paquito Navarro / Sanyo Gutierrez: it is surely the association which risks being the most serious rivals of Bela and Lima. Many dreamed of seeing these 2 fantastic players team up and this will take place in 2016 to the delight of the eyes with these 2 hyper spectacular players. All the ingredients of these 2 players (talent, youth, versatility, complementarity) make this pair has a great future in this sport. However, they may need a few tuning tournaments before getting their maximum performance.

Maxi Sanchez / Matias Diaz: even if they have not yet officially announced their collaboration, this pair would be formidable. Maxi and Matias are tireless warriors. Maxi is one of the most powerful attackers in the world while Matias is an outstanding defender. This pair will certainly be one of the 4 best pairs in the world, hoping for better.
Other pair changes are already announced or will be announced in the coming days but they do not concern teams which should play the leading roles on the circuit.

In summary, all these changes of pairs for the 2016 season (like the 2015 season) will most certainly make this 2016 season an exciting season with a question that all fans of padel arise: who will manage to dethrone the invincible Bela and Lima?

Justin Garnier - PADEL MAGAZINE

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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