With just one week until the World Championship Qualifiers begin in Derby the Padel Paper are delighted to be sharing two exclusive interviews with the nations who are seeded one in both men’s and women’s events.
First it is the turn of Germany’s No.1 ranked player Matthias Wunner to help us find out a bit more regarding his team, their expectations, and the state of padel in Deutschland.
Wunner was once ranked 603 in the ATP World Rankings at tennis and he and his partner Johannes Lindmeyer are the No.1 ranked German pairing, national champions, and a staple on the FIP Rise schedule while Wunner is ranked 338 with the World Padel Tour.
Wunner and Lindmeyer were the cornerstones of Germany’s sixth placed finish at the European Padel Championships last year and when it came to his country’s chances of qualification next week the German top gun has dismissed any suggestion that the pressure of the premier-ranking may leave his team with a shaky trigger finger.
Wunner said: “We are comfortable with being top seeded. We finished 10th last time at the world champs losing the final match to Belgium who finished ninth and that has allowed them to qualify for this year’s championship which makes that defeat a painful one!
“So, it is very important for us to make the World Championships as this can only help with padel’s growth in Germany. The media is coming more and more into padel at home and if we can make Dubai then I am sure the media will give us more coverage and the profile of the sport in Germany will then grow.
“So we just have to qualify and then we can look forward to Dubai and next week in Derby is a vital one for German padel.”
Wunner has no doubt where the main danger of an ambush may lurk and he cited the unseeded status of Portugal as a particular concern when it came to who may join German in their group when the draw is made around 24-hours before the qualification tournament begins.
The 29-year-old said: “We know that Sweden and Portugal will also be in the groups but with Sweden being No.5 seeds we will not draw them however Portugal are not seeded so we may get them in our group.
“If we get Portugal in our group it will be tough although I think the pressure will be on them if that does happen.
“The Portuguese No.1 Miguel Oliveira is a serious player and they have several other very good players and whoever draws them will find it tough.
“So, we are quite confident but there is no doubt that the big factor is if we draw Portugal in our group and if that happens then it will be tough but if we avoid them then I believe we will make it through.”
When it comes to the playing style which Wunner and Lindmeyer espouse there is no surprise that there is a strong tennis influence: “We both come from tennis so our strengths are being offensive with good volleys and overheads but right now we are working hard to improve our defence.
“It takes a lot of work to improve your work off the glass defensively and we have been focusing on that but definitely in attack we are stronger.
“I was ranked 603 on the ATP rankings at my highest back in early 2021 and I was top-30 in Germany in tennis and although Johannes didn’t play on the tour he is also from a tennis background.
“Johannes and I trained with the national team and at the Europeans in Marbella, where we played some matches together and finished sixth last year, we decided it would be good to partner up.
“Obviously Spain won the tournament and they beat us in the quarters although we lost in the group against Sweden but we did beat the Dutchies.
“So Johannes and I have stuck together and we are starting to make progress which is good and we will be playing No.1 couple as we play the most tournaments and play all of the FIP tournaments.
“We did not enter qualifying for the Premier Padel events like Roland Garros as we just teamed up at the start of the year and by middle of 2022 we were playing FIP tournaments and we have consistently been making the main draw of these.
“We want to be in the top-100 for sure and if we get there we will see if we can make the Major tournaments but we made second round of the FIP Gold in Alkmaar in Holland and right now we are consistently making second rounds most times.”
When it came to the state of the German nation in padel terms Wunner admits the sport has been more of a slow burn than the brilliant conflagration which has dislodged tennis in Spain as the No.2 participatory sport and seen over 5,000 courts built in Italy in jig-time.
The Germany No.1 said: “Padel is growing but growing pretty slow. We Are Padel are building indoor courts in Germany but we have a really big country and it doesn’t seem to be growing as fast as Belgium or France.
“We maybe have around 300 courts at the most which is not that much for a country of our size. I don’t know how many people are playing padel in Germany but there are quite a few clubs and the most important aspect of this is that the tennis clubs are starting to build padel courts.
“Slowly we are getting clubs adding maybe two courts but it is definitely a slower rate of growth than other countries in Europe like say Italy.”
