The French team of padel-armchair exploded with joy this Sunday at the end of the morning after having won the bronze medal in a hard fight at the first World Championships in the discipline. The Blues had however much to face the Argentinian team, which was the favorite after Spain.

No poker strategy

Very sportingly, the captains of the two selections had decided together not to play a poker strategy by reversing the hierarchy of their teams, as they are entitled to. It was therefore the pairs n°1 which clashed with each other, and the same for the n°2 and 3.

In 1, Dorian Navarro and Nicolas Vanlergberghe were shaken up from the start by losing the first set against the pair Guillermo Camusso / Diego Moliner. But the French were able to tighten the game and change strategy to further threaten their opponents and win the second set 6/2.

Meanwhile, on track n°3 of the Serranillos del Valle complex, veterans Jean-Marc Keghlian and Serge Garnier demonstrated their knowledge of the game against Juan Andanda and Lucas Diaz Aspiroz. After a generally dominated first set, the French pair had to draw on their resources to win 7/5. She tightened the game in the key moments of the second set, breaking away at the perfect moment before concluding 6/3.

Spectacular awakening

The first point acquired, the France team counted on Sébastien Husser and Tony Boval, the pair n°2, to fold the meeting, after a first set won 6/1. It was counting without the spectacular awakening of Alfonso Woolley and Jose Castricini, who won the second round by the same score (6/1).

When Navarro and Vanlerberghe won the second set, Boval and Husser broke away 2-4 in the third set. But there again, Wolley and Castricini put on a boost, pounding Boval to make him crack.

Although trailing 5-4, the blue pair n°2 showed all their mental strength, resuming a break to equalize 5-5. Then, in the fight, the two Alsatian friends managed to take the lead 6-5 and achieve a final break resounding like a deliverance for France.

Gold medal for the Spaniards

A few seconds later, Dorian and Nicolas completed this masterful work by obtaining the 3rd French point after a superb match point.

The final score, 3/0, does not reflect the bitterness of the fights fought by these two fine teams, during a meeting where each match could have turned in both directions.

Unsurprisingly, the gold medal of these Worlds was won by Spain, which inflicted a new 3/0 on Chile and will therefore not have lost any of the twelve matches played on Madrid soil.

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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