They made it happen They managed to climb to the top of the podium after beating in a meeting with epic tints and that kept the Spanish fans in tension until the wee hours of the morning. The Spanish pair conquered the title after beating the Romanians Mergea-Tecau by 6-2, 3-6 and 6-4.
Padel World Press .- The emotion, the equality and the tension were the most outstanding notes of a vibrant duel, in which there was no clear favorite and in which the forces were very balanced at all times.
In the first set, the representatives of La Armada were more successful in the decisive moments and took the lead on the scoreboard (6-2). However, the panorama completely changed in the second sleeve since, although a very similar script was followed, the protagonists on this occasion were the Romanian players ...
Very solid, Mergea and Tecau confirmed that they were not going to lower their arms and they did not take long to break the service of Marc López, with which they achieved an income of 1-3. From that moment, they knew how to maintain their advantage, saved a very dangerous 0-40 with 3-5 and managed to level the contest.
Everything was to be decided in a third set to which the Romanians arrived with morale through the roof. The nerves were maximum and it was no wonder ... They were six games away from achieving an Olympic Gold and any mistake could be decisive.
The alternatives were constant… First, it was Nadal-López who bailed out his first serve, only to then not be able to take advantage of any of the three break balls available in one of the longest games of the entire match.
Mergea and Tecau managed to break the serve of Marc (3-4) but the joy lasted little because the Spanish players responded immediately with a contrabreak (4-4).
With 5-4 in favor of Nadal-López, silence fell on the track ... One of the most important moments of the crash was coming, the one that could decide the victory ... And luck seemed to smile on us !! Three big shots, 15-40 and closer to the goal ... Which ended up moving away a bit after the 'deuce' forced by the Romanians ...
New advantage for Spain, there was only one point left ... And this came after a violent smash by Horia Tecau that crashed into the net !!
Rafa Nadal and Marc López merged in an embrace with which they celebrated the first Olympic gold medal in tennis outside the individual categories. In the pair tests, this medal 'surpasses' the silver won by Emilio Sánchez Vicario-Sergio Casal in Seoul'88 or the bronze by Corretja-Costa in Sydney 2000.
The total record of our tennis amounts to two golds (both with Rafa as protagonist), seven silvers and three bronzes.
Great emotion in a passionate encounter, which made us dream again in a few years to write similar chronicles with the padel as protagonist.
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