PIC: LTA
By RJ Mitchell
THE fact that the inaugural FIP Rise London Padel Open men’s tournament went Dutch was no surprise to Team GB international Louie Harris.
Unseeded Holland internationals Bram Meijer and Sten Richters lifted the title with a shock 7-6(9), 6-3 victory over fifth seeds Bastien Blanque and Jose Jimenez Casas.
Dutch ace Richters had prepared for the tournament alongside British partner Harris with a successful four-tournament schedule in Holland and Belgium that saw the duo claim victory at the P500 tournament in Zeist earlier this summer.
The Welshman also benefitted from weekly training sessions with the Dutch National Squad and admitted the opportunity helped expose him to new methods and styles that he believes were pivotal to the unseeded Dutch duo’s shock victory.
Harris said: “I was not surprised by how well Sten and Bram did at the London Open. I was lucky enough to train with the Dutch national squad every Tuesday while I was over there and I joined the squad sessions in Houten and then in Amsterdam where I did my final session and they are very tactically astute.
“It was a great opportunity to learn a few different training methods and also to see how the Dutch teams sets up and how they manage their sessions and it was really informative from that point of view.
“You can just learn so much by training and working with different people from different countries and partnering Sten was an eye-opener.
“The Dutch play slightly differently in terms of their style as the Dutch team have a lot of ex-tennis players and that makes for a different approach which is tennis influenced and I think that shocked the Spaniards in the final.”
The Dutch pairing were a huge hit in Roehampton which saw capacity crowds on the final day. Bastien Blanque (FR) and Jose Jimenez Casas (ESP), world ranked no. 175 and no. 76 respectively, were stronger on paper but struggled to execute their game-plan on the quicker NTC courts.
