-
RODRIGO VÁZQUEZ
Updated
They are the queens of paddle tennis, the dominators of this sport and they have been in charge of ensuring it mathematically. Ari Sánchez and Paula Josemaría are, with their victory in the Kuwait P1 final of Premier Padel, the number one of 2024 in the FIP ranking. A duo for the ages that continues to write chapters in their endless catalog of successes together. They virtually had it closed, but they did not want to wait any longer and have put the accounts aside to secure your privileged positionio after a season where perhaps they have not been so brilliant.
They spent two years in a row staying at the doorswith that painful Master Final of 2022 in the memory, but Once they have grabbed the crown they don’t plan to let it go. Without being particularly brilliant, they have been able to have enough regularity to surpass their rivals and today, against the number two, they have shown that they are still one step above. They have less and less cushion, but this is the current reality.
In general, a very close final that ended up being decided by details. The failures at key moments and the solidity shown by Ari and Paula have been decisive in a tournament in which Claudia and Gemma had been performing at a spectacular level.
They hadn’t given up a single set, but one o’clock arrived and they put all their effort into action. They broke at the decisive moment to make it 7-5 in the brightwhich perfectly showed the tension of the match, in which any mistake was costly.
Already in the second round, equality returned. Gemma tried to do a lot of damage from above with her vipers, but Paula and Ari successfully solved everything that the Menorcan woman threw. A lot of ballooning on her, which is strange considering her characteristics, but the strategy ended up working perfectly for them. However, everything had to be decided in the tie-break. In sudden death, the leaders of the ranking made use of their condition and experience to impose their game and win with authority. 7-6 which gives them the trophy of this P1 from Kuwait.
The level of the four is very even, which feeds the Hope to see a great fight for one next season. However, the Catalan and the Extremaduran have reaffirmed their place. A knock on the table exclaims that next year we will be able to have a fight, but This year the queens of paddle tennis continue to be, mathematically, Ariana Sánchez and Paula Josemaría.
