The first fact of Milano Premier Padel P1 has come, at the end of an epic match: with the success, paired with Agustin Tapia, against Momo Gonzalez and Javi Garrido (7-6 3-6 7-5 in two hours and 9 minutes), Arturo Coello is sure to end 2023 at number 1 in the FIP ranking. Coello and Tapia, the number 2 seed in the men’s draw and winners of the last four stages of Premier Padel 2023, will play a stellar second semi-final tomorrow (second match of the afternoon session starting not before 3 p.m.), against Franco Stupaczuk and Martin Di Nenno (3).
Coello, who started with 12,910 points before this tournament, with the 300 gained thanks to qualifying for the semifinals becomes unreachable for Galan and Lebron, who were tied for second with 12,200 at the start of the week: winning the tournament, in fact, awards 1,000 points to the winner, with the defending champions who could therefore reach a maximum of 13,200, with Coello now at least at 13,210.
The only three break points in the first set of a match with a space level, however, came from Gonzalez and Garrido, the number 7 seed: two in the fifth game and another in the ninth, but Coello and Tapia cancelled them out, then dominated the tiebreak (7-1). But Gonzalez and Garrido, who in the second game of the second set made the first break of the match, defending it to the end and taking the match to the third.
It was a wonderful show for the Allianz Cloud fans, who enjoyed a ‘padel monstre’. Break point cancelled in the fifth game by Coello and Tapia, a crazy point by Momo Gonzalez in the tenth, then the end: a net gave Tapia the 30-30 point in the twelfth game, the one of the first two break points of the match for Agustin and Arturito: the first cancelled, not the second. “It was an incredible match – Coello and Tapia commented – and perhaps our opponents deserved to win it for the number of chances they had. At the most important moment, however, we had that extra bit of lucidity”. Which is the difference between great players and champions.