PIC: World Padel Tour
Tia Norton and Carla Fito have put a flag in the sand with two fine performances at the World Padel Tour challenger event in Mallorca.
The wildcard pairing, who only had a week to prepare, looked comfortable in the first match of Pre-Qualifying against Maria Castanera and Carla Castillo Velarde on Monday. They sauntered through the first set to take it 6-2, however in the second their opponents proved to be much stiffer opposition, getting into a rhythm and levelling at one set apiece.
This appeared to focus Norton and Fito. While the hot conditions were challenging for both pairs, it was the former who dug deep, going a break up at 5-3. With Norton then serving, they went down 0-30, only to bring the score back to 40-30 and convert the match at the first opportunity. The match lasted close to two hours.
Their next match was against Noemi Aguilar and Marta Arellano, ranked 113 and 99 in the world respectively. There was history between Norton and Aguilar, Norton having beaten the Spaniard in her first World Padel Tour tournament in Malaga in August last year. With a place in Qualifying on the line this time, the stakes were high.
Norton and Fito broke serve to go 5-4 up in the first, and had set points, but couldn’t close out as the opposition broke back. Norton and Fito broke again to go 6-5, but once again, the Spaniards resisted. With the set level at 6-6, a tie break ensued.
Down 2-4 in the tie-break, things weren’t looking good. But they rose to the occasion, putting together a string of impressive points, and somehow they pulled back to 6-5. Agonisingly, they failed to convert again, as the Spaniards fought back to 6-6.
With one final push, Norton and Fito took the tie break 8-6.
In the second set, they capitalised on the momentum from the tie-break, and broke serve straight away. With both sides holding, Norton and Fito held their nerve to close out the match, and make Previa – or Qualifying – for only the second time in Norton’s career.
“The wind was ridiculous today, but it was the same for both sides”, said Norton after the win. “We usually train indoors, so it’s very different being outside where you have to account for the sun, wind and bounce.”
Later that afternoon however, the first round of Qualifying proved a step too far, as they went down 3-6, 1-6 to the fancied combo of Sandra Hernandez and Gemma Sanchez, ranked at 77 and 136. So, the tournament was over.
Norton however remained upbeat: “The first two matches took a lot out of us and the girls were just too strong today. However we’re over the moon to get to Previa (Qualifying) – that might not sound like a huge achievement to some people, but with the standard at these events being so high, and with Carla and I still young with so much to learn, we really feel like this is a big step forward”.
Norton, from Great Britain, and Fito, her Spanish counterpart, have developed a solid understanding of each others’ game despite only playing together for a few months.
They recently won the Stratford tournament in East London.
