Class. And that smile that never fades. Miguel Lamperti is one of the ‘travellers’ of the padel world, those who have seen it all before it became a powerful global phenomenon. Today, he made his debut at the Milano Premier Padel P1 by beating the Italian pair Abbate-Cassetta (6-2, 7-5) paired with 19-year-old Spaniard José Jimenez Casas.
Try searching for Lamperti on YouTube and you’ll immediately see his ‘cabeza blanca’ stand out on thousands courts around the planet that have gradually changed, filling with fans and passion since his professional debut in 1995.
Twenty-eight years as a professional, idol of the people holding a ‘pala’, Miguel Lamperti is the son of a place that something magical must have it. There, in Bahia Blanca, 300,000 inhabitants in the province of Buenos Aires, other champions were born: Lautaro Martinez, Manu Ginobili, Rodrigo Palacio and another world champion like el Toro, German Pezzella. And not only that, from there comes a Nobel Prize winner in medicine, Cesar Milstein, if you really wanted to step outside the lines of the courts.
Lamperti has padel in his blood. For him, playing is life and life is to be taken with happiness because if you have miraculously survived a car accident that could have been fatal, that’s how it works. And so, after beating our Cassetta-Abbate in two sets, Miguel brings his finger to his temple as if to say: “It’s all in the head”. But no. Instead, there is that lean and snappy physique that, for a man of ’78 who turned 45 less than a month ago (on November 11th), can only be the exact between balance work and sacrifice. And then the uncommon class and tactical sense on which his partner, the 19-year-old Spaniard José Jimenez Casas, number 105 in the FIP ranking (Lamperti is 54), the reason why “Miguelito” had to start from the qualifiers. And he won them all.
A tough match, the 6-2, 7-5 one, in which they defeated Flavio Abbate and Marco Cassetta, then, the show of jokes and smiles. When Chiara Icardi, in post-match interviews, asked him: “Miguel, what is your secret? With every passing year, your padel level keeps growing…”, he thanks her and replies: “You’re really kind, you found a very nice way to tell me that I’m getting old!”, and laughter ensues. Then, the heartfelt homage to his opponents – we could write a book on his sportsmanship – and more compliments, this time to his teammate, Jimenez, who could be his son: “I always hope his youth can be contagious…”. The ritual of autographs and selfies with children and grown-ups to which he generously indulges is beautiful to watch. Fans will watch Lamperti tomorrow, Tuesday, because he will face the SuperPibes Franco Stupaczuk and Martin Di Nenno, number 3 on the draw: in perfect Italian to the people cheers him, he shouts smiling: “See you tomorrow, Italy!”.