Great Britain’s men reached the quarter-finals of the FIP European Padel Championships in Sardinia with a match to spare – but there was heartbreak for the women’s team.
Handsome victories over Switzerland and Hungary in their opening two matches in Group B saw John Leach and Jordi Munoz’s boys seal a quarter-final place in the sweltering Italian heat – and with it, all-but confirm their qualification for the World Padel Championships in Doha in October.
Louie Harris and Chris Salisbury, Sam Jones and Christian Murphy and Sandy Farquharson and Nikhil Mohindra all won in straight sets to seal a 3-0 win against the Swiss on day one.
Sam and Christian and Louie and Chris also swept through their matches on day two against Hungary, with Frankie Langan and Nikhil going down 6-4 6-2 in the dead rubber.
Wednesday’s final group game against Italy was a shoot-out to finish top of the group, but the hosts came into it as strong favourites.
Giulio Graziotti and Ricardo Sinicropi made short work of Chris and Alfonso Patacho 6-2 6-1, Simone Cremona and Facundo Dominguez saw off Sam and Christian 6-3 6-4 and the whitewash was confirmed when Sandy and Nikhil went down 6-4 6-2 in the third rubber.
A second-place finish in the group means GB will face Group D winners Portugal in the last eight on Thursday.
GB’s women’s opened with a 3-0 defeat to Sweden but could take heart from no.1 pair Tia Norton Aimee Gibson’s battling performance in taking Hannah Borjeson and Amanda Girdo into a deciding set. They Brits ultimately went down 6-4 6-7 6-4.
Although Abi Tordoff and Lisa Phillips lost 6-3 7-5 to world no.44 Carolina Navarro Bjork and Baharak Soleymani, Catherine Rose and Victoria Nicholas also took their clash with Ajla Behram and Linnea Bjork into a decider before losing 6-3 6-7 6-0.
Wednesday’s clash with the Netherlands was a dramatic, six-hour encounter that could have gone either way.
GB got off to the perfect start when Tia and Aimee produced an outstanding performance to conquer Janine Hemmes and Avalon Segou Jonker 6-2 7-6 (3). Roared on by a vocal GB squad and travelling supporters, the pair endured some jitters when blowing five match points, but finally saw out the victory on their sixth opportunity.
Abi and Lisa were then blown away 6-0 6-1 by Stephanie Weterings and Marcella Koek, the world no.91 and 78 respectively, which set up a nail-biting decider.
There was hope when Catherine and Victoria took the first set 6-4 and held their own deep into the second set. But in blistering mid-morning heat, the tide gradually turned the way of Dutch pair Maaike Betz and Rosalie van der Hoek, who secured the last two sets 6-4 6-3.
Although all three pairs were victorious in straight sets in Wednesday’s final group match against minnows Estonia (with Olivia Smith replacing Abi alongside Lisa Phillips), GB women finished third in Group D.
They will now battle it out for ninth place, starting on Thursday with a tie against Poland (who lost all three of their games in a hideously tough group against France, Portugal and Belgium).
What this means as regards GB women’s qualification for the World Championships in October is as yet unconfirmed.
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