Expeditious elimination for Sanyo Gutiérrez et son partenaire Alex Chozas à Asunción P2, swept away in the quarter-finals by Alejandro Galán et Federico ChingottoIn just 45 minutes, the number 2 seed won 6/0 6/2 on the central court of the Ueno SND Arena. But it was above all Sanyo's media release, just after the match, which caught the attention.

Open criticism of the playing conditions

Visibly frustrated by the way the meeting turned out, The Argentinian player did not mince his words when speaking in front of the still open microphones. He strongly denounced the differences in playing conditions between the side courts and the central track, where his duo played for the first time in the tournament.

According to him, the ball's speed, bounce, surface behavior, and lighting vary so much that it's almost impossible for players unfamiliar with the center court to adapt quickly. "By the time you start to understand how the ball reacts, you've already lost 6-0," he said, somewhat annoyed.

“An imbalance that distorts competition”

Gutiérrez went further by pointing out a structural imbalanceHe regretted that some pairs could play all their matches on the main court, which would give them a clear advantage. He particularly cited the resounding score of the previous women's match, won 6/0 6/1 by Sanchez and Josemaría, as another example of this gap in conditions.

"It's no coincidence that the scores are so severe on this track," he said, before calling for more fairness: "Either we align the conditions on all the tracks, or we give everyone the opportunity to train on the central track. It's not normal to send some pairs to train in outside clubs while others get their bearings here."

Sanyo isn't the first to criticize these types of conditions. We recall the comments made by Paquito in Qatar, or Lamperti on the same topic, who pointed out the differences in treatment between the very best and the second-string players, making the task of continuing their journey in the table even more difficult.

Sanyo Chozas
Credit Premier Padel

An understandable frustration, but a polemical tone

While his analysis of the heterogeneity of playing conditions may raise a legitimate debate on fairness in professional tournaments, the tone used by Sanyo, peppered with insults in Spanish picked up by microphones, could provoke mixed reactions within the circuit. It remains to be seen whether his remarks will shake things up or whether this outing will remain a mere outburst of anger.

Franck Binisti

Franck Binisti discovered padel at the Club des Pyramides in 2009 in the Paris region. Since then, padel has been part of his life. You often see him touring France to cover major French padel events.

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