Portuguese padel ace Miguel Oliveira says his team will give Team GB every respect ahead of their semi-final clash in the European qualifiers for the World Padel Championships at We Are Padel Derby tomorrow.
The Portuguese defeated Sweden in the battle of the two favourites in a tense tussle last night that hinged on an epic opening tie which Oliveira’s side took on a final set tie-break after having been down a set and a break and seemingly out.
The Portuguese then out-classed Monaco 3-0 in their second Group E encounter this morning before dispatching Group D winners Denmark after taking a decisive 2-0 victory thanks to the classy Oliveira and partner Barat Deus 7-6, 6-1 victory in the opening tie.
This hard-fought success against stubborn Danish resistance paved the way for a second straight sets win that put the Portuguese through with one rubber to play.
But ahead of tomorrow’s eagerly awaited clash with the Brits, Oliveira was keen to pay his respects to a couple of the GB team stalwarts.
He said: “Richard Brooks is a very good friend and when I started to play international level he was very kind and very friendly and I have a good relationship with Sandy (Farquharson) as well and Britain have a very good team but so do we.
“We have several young players and we want very badly to make the World Cup but we give all respect to Britain; they are a good team.
“But I think the level is going up overall and you can see that from the first two days of the qualifiers.”
The fact that both Portugal and Sweden were forced to qualify is something of conundrum as they demonstrated with some breath-taking play last night but as Oliveira revealed, even in the embryonic world of a burgeoning sport like padel, politics can play a negative part.
He said: “To be honest there were some issues and problems between the Portuguese Federation and the FIP and I don’t know why we weren’t there and it was a great shame.
“But that is in the past and our players are focussed on being in Dubai this year and hopefully these issues are behind us all and for the good of padel it is very important we stay together in one community.
“All the wars and arguments do not help the sport, so we are here and we want to be in Dubai and that is all our focus.”
Reflecting on last night’s crucial victory over the Swedes, which has robbed the World Championships of arguably its second strongest European nation, Oliveira said: “Sweden are a very good country with a lot of professional players, so we knew that the draw was tough for them and us but we wanted to be in that World Cup draw and our will was strong.
“We had a fantastic win 7-6 in the third set in the first match and that set us up nicely and then myself and my partner, a very exciting young player called Perry, well we had a very good win and we are happy for the victory especially against Sweden.
“Then we had to back that up against Monaco this morning and we did that which is very pleasing. To beat Denmark who are another very strong side with one match still to play is very pleasing and now we must get ourselves ready for Britain!”
