PIC: LTA
By RJ Mitchell
TIA NORTON has backed the new GB Ladies coaching team of Alvaro Fernandez Guerrero and Max Lutostanski as the perfect combination to guide the team to the 2022 World Championships in Qatar.
Derby’s We are Padel 11-court super-complex have been awarded the European Group stages of the World Cup qualifiers in the last week of September, giving Team GB in both the women’s and men’s game a crucial advantage in their bids to qualify for World Cup being held at Khalifa International Tennis & Squash Complex in November.
With Guerrero having already guided Team GB Ladies to the previous World Cup at the same venue Norton believes that the continuity and experience of the Spaniard whom she has worked with extensively will be vital to making it back-to-back appearances at the worlds.
But Norton was also the first Brit to work with new GB Ladies No.2 Lutostanski when he coached her and partner Carla Fito Fernandez to victory at the FIP Rise London Open a fortnight back and was mightily impressed by the Brit’s technical and tactical nous.
Now with just five weeks to go until battle commences in Derby, GB No.1 Norton, who will spearhead our women’s qualification bid, has backed the new coaching team to make it a double in Doha.
Norton said: “Alvaro has been the coach since before the last World Championships and he is leading us into this year’s qualification tournament and I have built a good relationship with him having worked with him at that previous world champs.
“Having a top-level and experienced coach is absolutely vital for the national team as he is the one building the programme, organising our training sessions, and bringing us together as a group and Alvaro has put in a lot of hard work already in this respect for the qualis in Derby.
“Hopefully the team for the qualifiers will be announced soon but over the years we have built a good relationship and Alvaro was there at the FIP Rise and there was a lot of emotion and support from Alvaro there when Carla (Norton’s partner Carla Fito Fernandez) and I won and that was very much appreciated.
“Alvaro is an excellent communicator and he is very enthusiastic about getting his message across and that drives the players to push their limits, to invest more and to build a really good team spirit. So, for me Alvaro has definitely been involved in driving a lot more women into the top level of padel in the UK.
“I also think it’s important and adds value that we have continuity with Alvaro leading us from one World Championships into the qualifiers for the next as that provides consistency of message and everyone is very comfortable with that and enjoys the environment he has built around the GB team.
“So we have very strong foundations for Derby and it is hard to believe that it’s just over a month away.”
When it comes to Lutostanski’s addition to the ladies’ coaching team Norton has no doubt that he has all the attributes to add value to the Team GB set-up from her first-hand experience at the recent FIP Rise London Open.
The GB No.1 said: “It is really positive that we now also have a new assistant coach this year in Max Lutostanski and I met him at the NTC at the London Open where he coached myself and Carla at that event over both the semis and final and I believe that was his first event coaching and Max did a great job with us.
“Max is actually English and I think that is a nice development within the coaching team and obviously he now has a 100% record as a competitive coach after guiding us to victory at the London Rise so hopefully that will also stand us in good stead at Derby.
“But I have no doubt Max will add value to our coaching team from my experience of having worked with him at the NTC.”
When it comes to Derby, Norton has highlighted the two nations she reckons are favourites to navigate the qualification process: “Of course the first step is to qualify as there are some pretty tough opponents in Derby. For me I’d say Sweden and Portugal are the favourites.
“Sweden placed fourth in the Europeans and although Portugal didn’t go to the Europeans they have several WPT main draw players in their side and are just very solid and have a lot of top-level depth. They will be the teams to beat for me.”
But before Derby can be contemplated in earnest Norton and her Spanish partner Carla Fito Fernandez will be in action later today in the pre-qualification round of the WPT Tau Ceramica Bajo Aragon Challenger 2022.
As Tia explained: “We are in the first round of pre-qualification and if we win two matches in that it is then through to the qualification round and if we win another two we are into the main draw.
“It will be very tough to get into the main draw as the level is very high getting through pre-qualification and qualification and the best we’ve done before in qualys was in Majorca where we won two matches in pre-qualification.
“The two girls we beat in the FIP London Open final are also in the pre-qualification round in this tournament so that shows you the level we are talking. The FIP points we won don’t help our WPT ranking at all and since the last event on WPT at the beginning of July there has been a break and Calanda is the first part of the second-half of the season.
“We are up against Julia Adrados and Alba Adrados Buades and we are expecting a tough match as that is what we get every time at these WPT tournaments.
“It will be a case of producing our best and making sure that we give it everything.”
Still just 18, Norton admits to a certain amount of envy at the announcement Valencia will host the European Junior Championships between October 10-15: “I think the European Juniors is a great development. I played the World Junior Championships but we didn’t have an event for junior Europeans and that is something I would have loved to have had the opportunity to play in.
“For me I think that it is another great step forward in encouraging young people to play competitive padel and anything that does that is a positive. “
