Betclic Bordeaux Premier Padel P2, day 3 The magic week of Cepero-Benitez: from qualifiers to quarter-finals

Each tournament on the Premier Padel circuit offers big surprises, twists and turns, and pairs living the best week of their season. At the Arkéa Arena, in the Betclic Bordeaux Premier Padel P2, it is the turn of Alvaro Cepero and Miguel Benitez, respectively number 64 and number 77 in the FIP ranking. Starting from the qualifiers, the two Spanish players first defeated Alonso/Arroyo (6) in the first round, then repeated (6-4 6-1) against Javi Martinez and ‘Pincho’ Fernandez to qualify for the quarter-finals. Benitez had already reached the quarter-finals of a Premier Padel tournament, last in the Rome Major paired with Mario Del Castillo. In the quarters, the two qualifiers will face Momo Gonzalez and Alex Ruiz (3), who eliminated Juan Cruz Belluati and Miguel Lamperti 6-2 6-3 in one hour and eight minutes. Gonzalez/Ruiz are now the second highest seed on the draw, after Mike Yanguas and Javi Garrido (2) lost to Ramiro Moyano and Xisco Gil. Second victory, however, for Fernando Belasteguin and Juan Tello (1), with 6-3 6-4 to Javi Leal and Lucas Campagnolo. In the quarters, in the first match of the afternoon session starting at 5 p.m. CET, are Javi Rico and Juanlu Esbri. The other feat of the day is that of Guillermo Collado (number 143 in the ranking), who paired with José Diestro stopped the run of Maxi Sanchez and Sanyo Gutierrez, number 4 in the seeding, 7-5 7-5. For Collado/Diestro in the quarters are Lucas Bergamini and Pablo Cardona.

WOMEN If the men’s draw is full of surprises, the women’s draw has respected the order of the entry list. All eight seeds qualified for the quarter-finals, although the victories were different from each other. The most difficult was Virginia Riera and Sofia Araujo (4), who overcame Nuria and Laia Rodriguez 6-3 4-6 7-6 after a two-and-a-half hour battle. Gemma Triay and Claudia Fernandez, meanwhile, made their debut by beating Sharifova/Martinez 6-3 6-1. These are the quarters, starting at 10 a.m. on centre court and 12 noon on court number 1: Ustero/Alonso (6)-Ortega/Virseda (2), Sainz-Llaguno (5), Castelló/Jensen (3), Riera/Araujo (4)-Osoro/Marrero (7), Triay/Fernandez (1)-Rufo-Caldera (8).