Today two semifinals not to be missed

At the Premier P1 in Mendoza it’s semifinal day. And they will be two semifinals not to be missed, decided at the end of a day in which the Mendoza fans filled the Arena Aconcagua, with a special guest, former footballer Diego Milito. El Principe watched the domination of the top three seeds, who won their respective quarter-finals in two sets. The only pair to upset the odds was Alex Ruiz and Juan Tello (6), who beat 6-4 7-5 Fede Chingotto and Paquito Navarro (4) in the first match of the day. “It was wonderful to win in front of my family and friends”, the words of the Argentine, who played as a pair with Navarro until a few months ago. “We played a great match”, explained Ruiz. “Each of us was good at helping our partner in difficult moments. Against a strong pair like Chingotto and Navarro this was the key”.

There are four Spanish and four Argentinian players in the semifinals of the P1 in Mendoza. Ruiz and Tello will play in the second semifinal, against Superpibes Franco Stupaczuk and Martin Di Nenno (2), who yesterday conceded only four games (6-2 6-2) to José Rico and Agustin Gutierrez (15). However, the most awaited semifinal will open the programme at 5 p.m. in Argentina, 10 p.m. in central Europe, between the world number one and the pair who have dominated the last two tournaments on the Premier Padel circuit, in Rome and Madrid. On one side are Juan Lebron and Ale Galan, who return to play a semi-final after one elimination in the quarters (Rome) and one in the round of 16 (Madrid), and on the other side Arturo Coello and Agustin Tapia. Lebron and Galan defeated (6-3 6-1) Momo Gonzalez and Sanyo Gutierrez in 48 minutes, while Coello and Tapia needed four minutes more to get the better of Mike Yanguas and Fernando Belasteguin. In spite of the 6-1 6-2 suffered, however, Bela came out to the ovation of the Mendoza crowd, which is preparing to live two top matches today.