PIC:LTA
By RJ Mitchell
FLYING Dutchman Sten Richters is hoping to make it three wins in a row when he and partner Bram Meijer kick off their challenge for the FIP Rise Copa De Padel Utrecht tonight.
Richters and Meijer annexed the FIP Rise London Open and then backed it up with victory in Sten’s home city of Rotterdam at another FIP Rise event at the weekend in a success which was tinged with emotion coming as it did on his grandmother Marie’s 80th birthday.
But the red-hot double-Dutch duo face a tough start to their campaign when they meet Germany’s No.1 pairing of Johannes Lindmeyer and Matthias Wunner on the custom-built court that will be situated in the medieval city’s beautiful central square.
Yet with music being bounced around from giant speakers in between games Richters says the atmosphere will be more rock ‘n roll than historically respectful.
He said: “The Copa De Padel starts for us tonight in the big square in Utrecht and they build a big stadium with a padel court inside and in between games there will be loud music and the crowd get really whipped up. It will be crazy and last year it was just like one big padel party!
“I certainly hope we can make it three championships in a row and the fact the tournament is in Holland again makes it special. We are eighth seeded and it is a pretty strong draw and we are in the top-half of the draw with the No.1 seeded Spanish pairing of David Fernandez and Louis Pozo Carballo, so we know the level will be a step up.
“Our first match is against the No.1 German pair Johannes Lindmeyer and Matthias Wunner tonight and that will be tough one as when the Dutch meet the Germans it is always very competitive! So, we will see how it goes but we will be doing our best to win and go all the way in Utrecht.”
Looking back on last weekend’s victory in his home city of Rotterdam, Richters admitted he had strong home support and extra motivation to claim a title he has poignantly dedicated to his grandmother.
The Dutch padel master revealed: “I had my mum Marieke and dad Frank along for the quarters and semi -finals but in the final it was my grandmother Marie’s 80th birthday so they had to be with her and watched it on the livestream but I had some good friends there at the final so I had plenty of support.
“My grandmother lives at the other side of the country which is a two hour drive away so I did face time her and show her the trophy and it was great to dedicate this win to her.
“Also it was nice to have a lot of familiar people watching me live in Rotterdam as there were a lot of students I have given lessons to along to support me and that meant an awful lot.
“I coach at a nearby club in Rotterdam called LTC Triomf and I text a few of the people I coach there and it was great to see that they wanted to come and watch me in action. They’ve only seen me play on You Tube also to win it at home it was also a very good feeling.
“But the combination of winning the two FIPs back-to-back is a really nice feeling and after London to keep up the same level is really good. Hopefully we can continue at this level in Utrecht.”
Richters and padel pal Meijer were sixth seeds in what is Europe’s largest sea port but the 23-year-old reckons that when it comes to rankings you should read between the lines.
He said: “We were sixth seeds and we beat the No.4 seeds in the final while in the quarter-final we beat the third seeds Sergi Arquerons the No.1 Italian and Uriel Maarsen, who is a fellow Dutchman.
“But for me seeding at a certain level, well I am not sure that it really matters. I have not been playing these tournaments for long so I don’t have many points where the other guys have been playing these tournaments for a while and although playing against seeds is likely to be tougher that is not always the case.”
Credence is added to Richters’ contention by the fact the most testing match he and Meijer faced came in the quarter-final as he recalled: “It was a pretty difficult match in the quarters as Uriel Maarsen, or ‘Maars’ as we call him, is a Dutch player so we know him and Sergi Arquerons the No.1 Italian.
“They played really well in the first set and we didn’t take our chances and they got away with it but at 1-1 in the second set Arquerons slipped and broke his thumb and that was very unlucky for him and to be honest it did effect his game even although he still played pretty good.
“Bram and I got more on top of our game and we cut down on our mistakes and took our chances and came through 6-7, 6-1, 6-2.
“But credit to Arquerons for continuing to play with a broken thumb, from our point of view we got the win and that was all that mattered to us.
“Also a few weeks back when I was playing with Louie (Harris) I lost against them and then playing with Bram I beat them so that was a bit of revenge which was nice!
“In the final we had Simone Cremona and Marco Cassetta from Italy and we came through 6-4, 6-3 but that was also a difficult match as there was a lot of wind and to lob was tough but also to do something with the overheads was hard as it was not easy to judge the ball because of the wind.
“Especially in the first set there were a few breaks of serve back-to-back and it was easier to defend but we broke at the end of the first set and in the second we just had more control of our own service games and that made life easier.
“So the second set was a double break and we didn’t need to serve for the match which was very nice!”
All of which has perhaps given the double Dutch the perfect platform to make it a treble in Utrecht.
Read more about the tournament here.
