European Games, the draws drawn: Spanish favorites, Italy tries

The draws for the three padel tournaments – men’s, mixed and women’s – scheduled for today at the European Games were drawn at the Hilton Hotel. Start on the courts of the Ksos Center in Krakow and Spain to beat in all three specialties. Pablo Garcia and Alonso Rodriguez are the number one seeds in the Men’s Championship (32 couples), making their debut against the Bulgarian couple Dimitrov-Mladenov. On their side of the draw are Belgian No. 7 seeds Deloyer-Coene, Portuguese No. 5 Fazendeiro-Oliveira and French No. 4 Maigret-Tison.

The blues on the field

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Always in the upper part of the draw, to follow the Italians Sinicropi-Graziotti who will face off against Meier and Richchers, a Dutch couple. Gala-Santigosa are the number 2 seeds and they will have to watch out for the French Leygue-Scatena (3) and the number 6 seeds, the Portuguese brothers Nuno and Miguel Deus. The Italians Cremona and Cassetta could be the loose cannon in this part of the draw and the draw was positive for them: debut against the Swedes Andersson-Olsson, then in case of victories the number 3 seeds Dylan Guichard and Jeremy Scatena. Just the latter, paired with Guichard, lost in the quarterfinals of Cordenons’ Fip Rise against the blue pair in three sets. Should they go ahead, the Azzurri could cross the Belgian number 8 Peeters-Azzola, already beaten in the past. Tournament of great hopes for Marco and Simone therefore, with the objective of a difficult but not impossible semi-final.

In the running for the title

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For the hunt for medals, in addition to Spain, France, Belgium, Holland and Portugal are certainly in the running, but beware of surprises, bearing in mind the rapid growth of padel in several European countries. Barrera-Caparros is the couple to beat and number one in the draw among the 32 women’s couples. Two more Spaniards, Canovas and Martinez for the 2nd seed, while the 3rd and 4th seeds are Italian, respectively with Chiara Pappacena-Giulia Sussarello, making her debut against the Azeris Aliiyeva-Baghirova and Carolina Orsi- Giorgia Marchetti who open against the Finns Saarteinen-Sillanpaa. Two more couples from the same country – Belgium – for the 5th and 6th seeds, Wickaert-Mestach and Cuypers-Boeykens and for the 7th and 8th seeds, the Portuguese Dos Santos-Fernandes and Vilela-Rodriguez.

The Spanish Stars

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Finally, the mixed, with 16 pairs in the draw and again the Spanish catch-all in terms of seeding: Noa Canovas-Daniel Santigosa is the number one pair while at the bottom of the draw we find Maria A. Martinez-David Gala (2). Two Portuguese couples attempted to oust the Spaniards: Vilela-M.Deus and Rodrigues-N.Deus. Carolina Orsi and Giulio Graziotti will take the field for Italy, who will face the Poles Piorkwoska-Naduk and Cassetta-Sussarello in the first round, expected in the first round against the Belgians Azzola-Cuipers.