Liam De La Mare and Stan Hunt became the first British juniors to reach the semi-finals of an international U18 padel tournament at the FIP Promises event in Bristol last weekend.
Running alongside the inaugural FIP Silver R3 Bullpadel Cup, the FIP Promises marked the first FIP junior event to be held in the UK and attracted players from Spain, Mexico, Sweden and Italy as well as Britain’s strongest boys.
Liam, who’s from Guernsey, and Stan, who hails from Chelmsford, met another Guernseyman Cameron Gomes and his Spanish partner Toni Villena Quiros in the first round. In a closely fought contest, Liam and Stan eventually prevailed in a match tiebreak, 2-6, 6-3, 11-9.
In the next round, Stan and Liam met Cameron’s twin brother Luke Gomes who had received a bye as the third seeded pair due to his partner Sweden’s Filip Sterner’s world junior ranking of 69. Liam and Stan won through 6-4, 6-2 to book themselves a place in Sunday’s semi-finals.
There, they faced the no.2 seeds from Spain, Adrian Molina and Adrian Reina, who are 39 and 86 respectively in the world junior rankings. The Spanish duo were too strong and won 6-3, 6-2 but the match was close with many long rallies and deuce points.
Molina and Reina went on the push the top seeds and world no.1 and no.3 ranked players from Italy, Mattia Di Bari and Antonio Palma, 7-6, 7-6. That scoreline was a testament to how well Liam and Stan played and an encouraging sign of how they can compete with the very best in the junior game.
In the third/fourth place play off, Liam and Stan put in another strong performance to take the bronze medal, beating the no.4 seeds, Spain’s Fabrizio Gonzalez Arrigunaga and Mexico’s Raul Rodriguez Fuentes, 7-6, 6-2.
Reflecting on the weekend’s performance, Liam said, “It was an amazing experience and a fantastic tournament run by R3. The U18 event ran alongside the professional tournament so to be able to play in front of large crowds was great.
“I was really pleased with how Stan and I played throughout the weekend. Our first match was incredibly close winning a championship tiebreak 12-10. The Spanish pair we lost to in the semi-finals were very good but we felt we played really well against them. It was great to win the 3rd/4th play off to cap off the great weekend.”
Looking to the future, he added: “I just want to keep going and reach the latter strands of the professional event in a few years’ time. They are all so good, but I believe I can get there.”
Stan agreed, saying: “It was a great experience to play people our own age from all over the world and compare our level to other teenagers. We were unseeded, so super happy to come third overall – a great achievement and a reflection of the hard work we have both put in.”
The eight pairs in the FIP Promises U14 boys’ event in Bristol were all British bar one Spanish boy, Daniel Puerto Garcia, who partnered Jesse Warren. The winners were second seeds Jules Bakunowicz and Rayco Rodriguez Perez who beat top seeds Andrew Dunn and Travis Barber 6-2 6-2 in the final.
Libby Fletcher, LTA National Performance Pathway Manager, reflected on the FIP Promises saying: “It was great to attend the first ever international junior FIP Promises tournament in Great Britain last weekend in Bristol. This is a big milestone for LTA junior padel and the first of three tournaments we have committed to bringing here this year to provide our British players the opportunity to compete internationally. The tournament was very competitive with a strong European entry list, it was fantastic to see our GB players battle against more experienced pairs and show that junior padel in this country is growing rapidly and improving.”
FIP Promises R3 Bristol Under-18 results here
FIP Promises R3 Bristol Under-14 results here
