From November 13 to 19, in Estoril (Portugal), the XNUMXth European will be played, the most anticipated international tournament of the year and in which we will be able to see the best players from the Old Continent in action. Don't miss this 'preview' offered by our colleague Fernando Blanca (World of Padel).
Padel World Press .- For those of us who like international competition by country, there are only a few days left until one of the weeks we had marked in bold on our calendars arrives since the dates and venue were announced. This type of events have something special because it is wonderful to see such a different set of people with different cultures, languages, ways of thinking, communicating and interpreting the world gather for a few days to celebrate a kind of liturgy around of a common sports passion where only one language is spoken: the one of paddle.
And if we talk about the competitive aspect, this European is more attractive than the previous one… But less than the next one, how it has to be.
It should be noted that they will be held two competitions: one for national pairs and another for national teams. I will only talk about the competition for national teams.
From it, say that it was intended for 16 teams but in the end 15 will be the countries that will be present in the Men's Draw and 11 in the women's. Not bad if we consider how 'young' is the European paddle and that is something we will understand seeing one of the participating countries (yes, there is also played and are equally addicted):
- Czech Republic (MAS).
- Finland (MAS and FEM).
- Poland (MAS and FEM).
- Principality of Monaco (MAS).
- Germany (MAS).
- Austria (MAS).
- United Kingdom (MAS and FEM).
- Switzerland (MAS and FEM).
- Sweden (MAS and FEM).
- Italy (MAS and FEM).
- Holland (MAS and FEM).
- Belgium (MAS and FEM).
- France (MAS and FEM).
- Spain (MAS and FEM).
- Portugal (MAS and FEM).
You can review the list of players called for each selection clicking on this link
Which countries do we miss?
Denmark and Norway (the latter presents a pair for the competition in pairs), Greece, Hungary and Slovakia in central Europe, the Baltics, the Balkans .... Soon there will be more candidates than seats and will have to hold some qualifiers as for the World Cup.
The favorite without palliatives is Spain
The 'Red' presents a team to win everything despite being quite different from the one that went to the 2016 World Championship (which was also held in Portugal, in Cascais, a sign of how strong the paddle is in the neighboring country).
The novelties in the masculine set are Ale Galán, Pablo Lijó and Alex Ruiz. They repeat Guillermo Lahoz, Juan Martín Díaz, Paquito Navarro, Chiqui Cepero and Aday Santana.
As for the girls, there are many more 'new faces'. They only repeat Lucía Saínz and Gemma Triay ... The rest are Marta Ortega, Ariana Sánchez, Alba Galán, Mari Carmen Villalba, Teresa Navarro and Victoria Iglesias.
Then the other 'favorite' is the hostess, Portugal (remember that it is the current European Women's Champion since Spain did not participate in the 2015 edition). The Lusos have players with tremendous talent and a lot of experience in the professional circuit such as: Diogo Rocha, Vasco Pascoal, Miguel Oliveira, Ana Catarina Nogueira (# 19 WPT !!) and Filipa Mendonça.
And then comes the interesting
At least, the interesting thing to know at what speed the professionalization of the paddle is growing, of its schools, academies, monitors, the work of its federations, in the rest of the Old Continent.
France is the current European Men's Champion and, on paper, the favorite for bronze in both boys and girls. This sport in Gallic lands is rising like foam and it should not be forgotten that it is a country with a great sports and tennis tradition. The French Tennis Federation has taken the reins of paddle tennis and is putting resources and experience to promote it in this phase. In turn, it cannot be ignored that the division of HEAD for the sport of the racket it is led by a Frenchman; what Babolat, leader in tennis, has also been proposed to be in padel and Tecnifibre and Rossignol They have also landed in this wonderful discipline. Eye with France. It's great news for the paddle.
Outstanding players: Laura Clergue, the first who made the leap to Spain to train professionally full time. He has just been in Madrid for a year and is already ranked number 50 in the WPT Ranking. Bastien Blanqué and Johan Bergeron, the pair that has just been crowned as Champions of France, followed in Laura's footsteps and have been under Ramiro Choya for a few months. The rest of the block has great talent and potential. If they play at their level it will be difficult to snatch them that third place.
Next we have the Italian, Belgian and Dutch teams as the strongest, especially in boys, and capable of putting France in trouble… Enough to beat them? Today they seem a step below but we love surprises.
More players living the Spanish adventure
Jeremy Gala, Belgian Black Crown player who has been in Madrid for more than a year training with Adrián Caviglia; Helena Wyckaert, also Belgian who will make the jump to Madrid at the end of November; and Uriel Maarsen, from the Netherlands, who has been in Bilbao for a few weeks ... And we will see more soon. It is the only way to grow at the player level until they have coaches and players in their own countries of the level necessary to continue the progression.
The rest would be in the middle and lower zone, with Poland and the Czech Republic being a total unknown (for a short time) for those who write. We will see how the Championship unfolds and if the final drawing resembles, at least a little, to the above.
Fernando Blanca - World of Padel
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