The HOP (Home of Padel) finals feature the best players from the tour, over the year, and therefore should create an immensely competitive tournament. It is fair to say that the event in Chelsea certainly lived up to this hype – something that the HOP co-founder, Javi Serrats, was very pleased with.
Declan Christie and Alberto Crespo came out winners in the HOP Tour event. They beat Brian Condren and Jamie Wilkinson, 7-6(3) 7-6(6), in what was a very back and forth final. The runners-up were in-fact 4-1 up in the second set, and then went on to have a set point at 6-5 up in the tie-break but could not consolidate their advantages.
Christie and Crespo had only just made it through their semi-final against Michael and Stephen Alexander, who ended up finishing third, coming from a set down to win a third set match tie-break, 10-8. The duo, who practice in Harrogate, will add this finals trophy to the one they won earlier this year in Rawdon.
The Pro event was won by the favourites Chris Salisbury and Rafa Vega, but it certainly was not plain sailing for them. Serrats had backed them to win the title earlier in the week, as they were the only pair who had played together previously.
Salisbury and Vega came up victorious against Jose Gaspar and Sam MacNeil in the final, beating them in a match tie-break, 6-2 6-7 10-6. The champions had beaten Tom Farquharson and Alvaro Fernandez in their semi-final, in straight sets. This was the only match in the PRO event that was won in two sets, with the other three all going the distance.
This is not the first time the pair had won an event in Chelsea, as they had also won the tournament in May earlier this year. Serrats thought that this was probably a coincidence but said that their style does suit the indoor courts, “I think it probably is a coincidence, but the indoor courts in Chelsea do definitely have benefits to Chris and Rafa. There is no wind or external factors which it makes it easier to smash the ball, which they are both very good at. Being tall guys, they are always very difficult to try and lob and find gaps past them.”
Not only did the players have a great time on the court, they also seemed to have a good fun off it, celebrating the end of a successful HOP season at a Lebanese restaurant. “As a way of socialising we had a champions dinner. Twenty of the players all came to dinner, to create that closure of the season and it was a nice way to say goodbye to our competitors.”
This wraps up the 2022 HOP season, which has featured 19 events, 16 different winners and lots of great padel. HOP organisers Javi Serrats and John Leach have done a fantastic job to create such a competitive and social tour up and down the country, and you can imagine they will be pushing for it to get bigger and better in 2023.
