By RJ Mitchell
FRESH from his breakthrough victory at the FIP RISE London Padel Open Sten Richters has provided a fascinating insight into why he and partner Bram Meijer were able to shock the high-quality field at the National Tennis Centre and claim their first international tournament as an unseeded paring.
It was only the second tournament the Dutch duo had played together after they had previously triumphed at a domestic tournament on home turf on the build up but on their first mission abroad they broke the expected Spanish title stranglehold by employing a distinctive style of padel that has its roots in tennis.
After doubling their ranking points following their success at the NTC, Richters and Meijer will now be forming a permanent partnership as they look to force their way into main draw competition at the vaunted Premier Padel level.
But first it was time for Sten to reveal why ‘going Dutch’ proved so successful in old London town: “I think our style is different to the traditional Spanish style but I also think that is changing a bit. Most of the players who play padel in Holland all come from tennis, so when we started playing padel over there it was super attacking and really about getting to the net very quickly,” said Sten.
The new London RISE champion continued: “For sure the longer you play you start to use the walls and move a bit more to the traditional Spanish style but I think we bring more power and pressure in most of the shots equally at the net and at the back, so it is a bit of a different style with us Dutch.
“I think that now if you look at the top players they basically do the same and go forward a lot. So it is changing with the other nations.”
When it came to the nuances of Richters’ and Meijer’s distinctive style the reveal was fascinating: “I’m always on the left and I want to stay there, so that is the advantage court in tennis terms. I always train there and try to find a partner who plays on the right so we don’t have to change sides.
“I am right-handed so my forehand is to the middle. That means my court position dictates I am to the left-hand side to make sure the majority of my court is forehand.
“So for example when my partner serves from the advantage or left court I am at the net on that side and he will run to the net on the right-hand side or deuce court so I am not changing sides.
“I think it is important to do this as the sides are different from each other in terms of strokes and movements and if you can train on one side, the side you prefer, the whole time and your partner does that as well and you master your side then it works much better than if you constantly change.
“So if you keep on practising over and over then you will get better and that reinforces the advantage of concentrating your individual play to one side only.
“Also before I started padel I played tennis for a few years and I would say I was a decent player at regional level and now I have been playing padel for around four years.
“When I started playing padel I took it quite seriously and I trained a lot but to really understand the game and then get comfortable with using the walls it took over a year.
“Practise is the big thing. You need to work with a basket of balls going back over and over to reinforce it all and making sure you don’t go back into your old habits of not using the walls.
“If you are not 100% comfortable with the walls then you won’t use them in a match so practise is very important.”
Richters has no doubt about the importance of his victory at the NTC as a springboard to major involvement at the elite padel level and he said: “We signed up for the tournament with quite a lot of points, maybe around 80, but there were so many good players on the list that we knew we would be pretty low and we were actually 18th based on ranking points.
“So we knew it would be a tough tournament and it was super important for us. For me personally it was the first international tournament I have won although last year I made semis of one FIP RISE but London was also my first final and so there were a lot of firsts in there for me.
“Also it was the way we did it by beating multiple top-100 players on the way to the final and then the way we played that showed we could perform at that level as I have never done that and it was a nice feeling.
“Plus because our partnership was so knew it gives us a lot of confidence in each other and we know we can play at this level and compete with these top guys.
“Going forward well I haven’t played WPT (World Padel Tour) in a while with my FIP ranking I was just outside the top-300 but now because of the points I got from London RISE I will be around 240 now and the goal is to play the Premier Padels.
“So I have almost doubled my points and it is the same for Bram and hopefully we get a better seeding and can build towards playing Premier Padel and the dream of playing Roland Garros and Foro Italico.
“We will definitely try to sign up for the next premier but it depends on who has signed up and who maybe calls off although one day we want to be highly enough ranked to be in the main draw in our own right.”
However of one thing there is no doubt and that is Richters’ and Meijer’s resolve to become padel’s first Dutch Masters: “We just started playing and London Rise was our first international tournament together, although three weeks back we played our first national tournament as a pair in Holland and won that as well, so it was only our second tournament ever at the NTC.
“Bram has been five years in a row as Dutch champion and I am now partnering him up going forward. We both have a couple of tournaments to play with other guys next but after that we have decided we will be a pairing.
“I will probably play one more FIP in Utrecht with Louie Harris who is a really good friend of mine, we have played a few times before and had good success and he has a big future ahead in padel for sure. Then I will be playing with Bram as we can also train together in the Netherlands and that is nice and really works well.”
As he looked back on a seminal weekend at the NTC Richters was keen to share some kind words for the LTA and their organisation of a tournament he will always look back on with fond memories and he said: “It was just a really nice venue and that it wasn’t totally indoor but was covered was great and I really enjoyed that aspect.
“The National Tennis Centre is just an amazing place to be and it is where the best of the best train in tennis and the atmosphere was great it really was a place you wanted to play and the tournament was very well run by the LTA and for me it will always be a special tournament.”
