Dubai: The 11th-ranked pair of Adrian Allemandi and Miguel Lamperti were among the early winners on the opening day of the inaugural Dubai Padel Masters being held at the Nad Al Sheba (NAS) Sports Complex on Sunday.
Allemandi and Lamperti easily got the better of Gerard Company Escriche and Ruben Rivera Serra 6-1, 6-1 to advance to the round of eight in the men’s category.
Argentine Allemandi was pleased with the strong start to their campaign in Dubai. “We are pretty pleased with the way we moved on court. This gives us a lot of confidence for the remainder of the tournament. We have been loving this first-time experience in Dubai and we hope we can go all the way and win this competition,” Allemandi told Gulf News. “With a win under our belts, our focus is now to keep this momentum going into the next rounds. We are confident we can win this one,” he added.
Meanwhile, the challenge from the UAE was almost over in the qualifying play-offs after two of the four pairs lost early on the opening day.
Emilio Misas and Pedro Rios went down 3-6, 2-6 against Juan Cruz and Ignacio Gonzalez Gadea, while Gonzalo Rubio and Aris Patiniotis took a little over 30 minutes to send the Emirati pairing of Saeed Al Merri and Hassan Sharif Al Marzouqi packing in straight sets 6-1, 6-1.
Later on Sunday, Javier Lopez, one of the coaches at NAS Sports Complex and Mauricio Andrini, the English commentator for the official padel television network were scheduled to be action against Toni Bueno and Lucas Cunha, while Dubai-based Dirk Jan and Benjamin Cassaigne were up against Raul Diaz and Raul Marcos Duran.
Held under the patronage of Shaikh Hamdan Bin Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai, the Dubai Padel Masters is the penultimate stop on the five-legged World Padel Tour (WPT). The Dubai round is being organized by the UAE Padel Association (UAE PA) in the men’s and women’s categories with both finals being scheduled for Saturday (October 31).
Action will continue at the NAS Sports Complex padel courts daily from 4 pm. Entrance for general public is free and there are loads of instant prizes through raffle draws during the course of matches every day.
