TEAM GB Head Coach John Leach has urged his men to make Britain proud when the XVI World Padel Championships get underway on Monday.
With the opening ceremony and group stage draw not being held in Dubai until around 3.30/4pm UK time on Sunday, Leach and his cohorts still don’t know who they will be drawn against in the four-team group stage.
However with the British in pot 3 after their 11th placed finish last time around they will be guaranteed both a semi-finalist and a quarter-finalist from 2021’s Qatar World Championship.
With World Champions Spain and superpowers like Argentina, Brazil, and France in pot 1 and Italy, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Chile in pot 2, Leach knows that making the quarter-finals this time around, which depends on a top-two pool stage finish, is going to prove a real challenge.
Yet the GB coach was in bullish mood as he projected forward to Sunday night’s draw, saying: “This is my second World Cup as head coach and I am extremely happy and proud that we qualified as every year it is becoming tougher to qualify with more teams in there competing for a place at the finals.
“Only 16 teams have made it and we have 80 countries trying to qualify for these finals, so it is an achievement just to be here and I am super excited for Dubai 2022 and I believe we belong in this World Cup.
“We also have great team spirit we have had to fight our way through qualifying and we feel we are keeping this momentum going from Derby and we have trained well before we flew out.
“So the preparation and the hard yards are done and we are now good to go and determined to make Britain proud.
“That said, from my point of view this is the strongest World Cup yet. The level of the players has gone up, there is greater professionalism so really it won’t matter who we draw – it is going to be tough to make the quarters.
“We saw at We Are Padel Derby just how hard it was to make it to Dubai with our match with Germany going all the way to the final set of the deciding tie and now we are here at Dubai the level is up again on that.
“So nothing less than our best will do.”
While the only change from 12 months ago in Qatar was the enforced reshuffling of the pack which saw Francis Langan replacing an injured Ryan Wyatt, Leach is confident that there is one big difference from 2021: improvement.
He said: “It’s actually the same team from Qatar bar one change with Ryan injured and Frankie in, but the key thing is that all the players are developing. They are so young that every year the whole team improves and that is very exciting for everyone.
“Beating Germany in the play-off semi-final at the qualifiers was a good measure of how much we have improved over the last year. Obviously both matches were pretty close and we lost last time around and then we won the deciding tie with Christian and Sam coming through in three tight sets in Derby.
“So we are ecstatic that we qualified and especially in coming through a real battle and that we found a way to turn a really tight match our way and get a very good win against a strong Germany side when we just came up short against them last year.
“All of which suggests we are making the progress we hoped to be making.”
When it comes to Langan’s replacement of Wyatt, Leach is confident that there will be no drop off in quality: “Obviously it was disappointing for Ryan as he had been a key part of the team and of course with the World Championships being in Dubai it was on his home turf but unfortunately his injury problems were just too severe to make it.
“But being able to bring Frankie in was a great option and he had been close to selection in any case and just missed out so I am very happy he can came back and joined the team as he brings a lot.
“He has a very positive attitude and is very determined and I like his input towards the team as he is very proactive and is very supportive to the other guys and is an excellent team player.
“So Frankie is a positive addition to the group and he won’t let anyone down.”
When it came to the vagaries of Sunday’s draw Leach admits he can’t wait to see what kind of pot luck he will enjoy, saying: “There are four tiers of seeding with four in the top tier including Spain – the World Champions – and Argentina, the team they beat last time around in the Qatar final, and this will all be based on last year’s results.
“So one to four will be drawn first, then five to eight in the second tier and I am assuming we will be in the third tier, which is eight to twelve, as we finished 11th last time around – but FIP keep these secrets to themselves.
“We will be getting one from Spain, Argentina, Brazil, or France from the top tier and then the second tier comprise of the beaten quarter-finals from last year and you can bet Portugal will also be lurking in there somewhere.
“It hasn’t been confirmed but we believe around 6.30pm local time which is around 3.30pm UK time. FIP haven’t explained how they are going to do it but previously they have put all the captains in one room just before the opening ceremony and then done the draw live in front of us.
“So we get to see the countries being pulled out of the hat and that is a pretty exciting moment.”
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