champions parade in Cagliari

There are those who have been world number one, and those who have climbed the world to become champions with the jersey of their national team. On the entry list of the FIP PLATINUM Sardegna, an event promoted by the Autonomous Region of Sardinia, Tourism, Handicrafts and Trade Department, under the patronage of the Cagliari Municipality and scheduled from 2 to 8 October at the Tennis Club Cagliari, there is the history of padel. The breaking news is the registration of Federico Chingotto (number 9 ranked) and Mike Yanguas (number 22), who compose an unedited pair, because Chingotto usually plays with Paquito Navarro and Yanguas do the same with Fernando Belasteguin. Also on court Jeronimo ‘Momo’ Gonzalez and Javier Garrido, both world champions with the Spanish national team and currently number 14 and 20 in the ranking, will lead the entry list. From Argentina, however, come Maxi Sanchez and Luciano Capra: the ‘Shark’ (as Sanchez is nicknamed), who will turn 37 in December, is one of the masters of padel and in 2018 – two years after becoming world champion – paired with Sanyo Gutierrez ousted another legend such as Fernando Belasteguin from the top spot in the ranking. Only two months ago, Sanchez and Capra had a great tournament in Madrid: in the Spanish Premier Padel P1, the two Argentinians made it all the way to the semifinals, defeating among others the number ones Juan Lebron and Ale Galan, before stopping in front of the circuit dominators Arturo Coello and Agustin Tapia.

Scrolling through the names of the big names who will stop on the island next week, here are Javi Rico (world number 30) and ‘Coki’ Nieto, number 17, the latter a semi-finalist at the last Major Premier Padel at Roland Garros (with Jon Sanz), a tournament in which José Antonio Diestro and Javier Leal – also expected in Cagliari – put on a good show by eliminating the number 2 on the draw Franco Stupaczuk and Martin Di Nenno. Also new in the Italian pairs: Lorenzo Di Giovanni will play with Simone Cremona, while Marco Cassetta will share the court with Portuguese Pedro Araujo. It will be up to them to try to counter the Spanish and Argentine domination.