Garbisu, Robledano beat former Maltese tennis Cassar Torregiani and Arrigo in women’s final
Arturo Fernandez and Santi Antonaya were victorious at the Evian Padel Open in Pembroke last weekend while Itziar Garbisu and Malena Robledano took the honours in the women’s section.
The tournament was organised by the United Padel Club, in collaboration with Padel Malta, and was sanctioned by the Malta Tennis Federation.
The competition attracted a very strong entry list with 24 teams competing in the men’s category and 12 teams battling it out in the women’s category.
The tournament was played over two weekends with the group stages played between April 13 and 14 while the final stages were held last weekend.
In the men’s tournament, Fernandez and Anonaya breezed into the quarter-finals when they overcame Dorato and Benedek with a double 6-1 scoreline.
Next up was a match against Italian duo Polizzi and Di Pieri and Antonaya and Fernandez progressed with a 6-0 6-0 win.
In the semi-finals Antonaya and Fernandez recorded another straight sets win over Chans and De Laat 6-3 6-2.
In the final, Antonaya and Fernandez were up against Maltese tennis champion Matthew Asciak and Llanos.
Asciak and Lanos beat Sicbaldi and Eder 6-0 6-3, De Goede and Raemakers 6-0 6-2 before overcoming Pace and Abdalla with 7-6 6-4 in the semis.
In the final Asciak and Lanos looked on their way when taking the first set 6-3.
But then the two padel coaches Fernandez and Antonaya managed to turn around this nailbiting battle, winning the next two sets 6-3 6-3 to lift the trophy.
In the women’s tournament, former tennis champions Carol Cassar Torregiani and Claire Arrigo had a strong run to the final when they ousted Xuereb and Csokasi 6-0 6-1 in the quarter-finals and then breezed past Zammit and Patti 6-1 6-1 in the last four.
Their opponents in the final were Itziar Garbisu and Malena Robledano who equally had an impressive run in the tournament.
They whitewashed Blanco and Ronneback in the quarter-finals 6-0 6-0 before defeating Delgado Katavic 6-2 7-5.
The final turned out to be a balanced affair with Garbisu and Robledano taking the first set 6-4 but the Maltese duo hit back to force a decider after winning the second 6-3.
But in the final set, Garbisu and Robledano pulled together to win the decider 6-1 and lift the trophy.
