Day 2. Ronaldo makes the Deus fly. Good debut for Sanz, now it’s time for the bigs

Cristiano Ronaldo returned to the Padel Rush Arena and again brought good luck to the Deus brothers. CR7’s presence must have charged up Nuno and Miguel, whose 6-3 6-4 win over Javi Garcia and Javier Barahona clinched a place in the round of 16 of the Riyadh Season Premier Padel P1, on a day that saw the debut of other top world players.

MEN The 2024 season of the Qatar Airways Premier Padel Tour had closed with a big surprise, and with the triumph of Coki Nieto and Jon Sanz in the final of the Barcelona Finals against Arturo Coello and Agustin Tapia, who were able to win 47 games in a row. Nieto and Sanz are no longer a pair and, while waiting for Coki’s debut with Mike Yanguas scheduled for Wednesday, Sanz began his partnership with Momo Gonzalez – another who finished the 2024 with excellent results – with a 6-2 double over Mario Huete and Federico Mouriño that earned them qualification to the round of 16 of the Riyadh Season Premier Padel P1, a round in which the top four seeds (Coello-Tapia, Chingotto-Galan, Stupaczuk-Lebron and Yanguas-Nieto) will take the court.

There were also good debuts for other new pairs, with Martin Di Nenno and Javi Garrido (5) dropping just three games (6-1 6-2) to Nachi Sager and Juan Cruz Belluati. It took three sets for Pablo Cardona and Leo Augsburger (9), who were ahead 7-6 5-7 6-4 over Goenaga/Zapata.

WOMEN Wednesday will also be the day of the debut of the first four pairs of the women’s draw (Josemaria-Sanchez, Triay-Brea, Gonzalez-Fernandez and Ortega-Araujo). The feat of the day was that of Marina Guinart and Victoria Iglesias, winners of the CUPRA FIP Finals, who in two hours and 41 minutes eliminated Aranzazu Osoro and Jessica Castelló (7) 6-7 7-6 6-2. Wednesday’s schedule will start at 12 noon in Riyadh (10 a.m. CET): the big match will be between Triay and Brea and the pair formed by Ale Alonso and Andrea Ustero.