Focus on Ksenia Sharifova: from “tennis pressure” to love for padel

The CUPRA FIP TOUR makes a weekend stop in Burriana, in the Comunidad Valenciana. The Espadel will host a FIP RISE, with a men’s and women’s double draw of 32 pairs and many players in the top 100 of the world ranking trying to take the lead. In the men’s, Mario Ortega (66) and Carlos Martí (92) are the top seeded, followed by Pedro Vera (80) and Ignacio Piotto Albornoz (127), finalists last sunday in Gävle. In the bottom half of the draw, Cayetano Rocafort Lores and Simon Vasquez (number 8 of the seeding) and Belar Vera Lopez and Sergi Nogueras Lorenzo (11).

Among the women, Spain’s Marina Martinez Lobo and Teresa Navarro Lopez Barajas lead the entry list. Paired with Arantxa Soriano Perez, Russian Ksenia Sharifova will play. Coming from Sachalin Island in the Russian Far East (not far from Japan), Ksenia has lived in Spain for years and, after giving up tennis, decided to play padel.

“There was too much pressure – said in an interview -. I arrived at the end of each season mentally destroyed and there was no one to explain to me that losing matches was not the end of the world. I completely fell in love with this world. The tennis experience allowed me to go out and compete against players who had grown up with padel, but that was not enough. I had to be hungry and desire to win every single point“.