By Jamie Morris
Rafael Vega and his partner Chris Salisbury proved a class above the opposition after graduating with the top prize at the LTA Tour grade one event Rocks Lane on Sunday.
With the duo both top-10 ranked in the UK LTA ratings they produced a suitably decisive performance to earn a 6-4,6-2 victory over Jose Gaspar and Miquel Angel Gilabert Mas to claim the men’s doubles crown.
Vega, who is also Rocks Lane’s Head of Padel, was satisfied with the quality of his partnership’s performance on the court but even more pleased with the success of the event overall.
He said: “We won in the end despite a tough semi-final which could have gone either way and I was pleased with that one as we hadn’t played well in the first few first rounds.
“We improved as the tournament went on and the final was a challenging match as it is when you play people ranked in the top ten but we got the job done in straight sets. Really the standard we were at in the final is where we like to find ourselves performance wise.
“We were trying to organise this tournament and then I ended up winning it, so for myself it couldn’t have been a better ending.
“We have another tournament next weekend and we have one the week after that and as a pairing Chris and I will be linking together again.”
Vega continued: “But as organisers we were working to try to provide the best service possible, everyone pulled together and there were a lot of people involved, they allowed this to happen.
“For me, more than winning the event it was the fact we were hosting a grade one competition and everyone was engaged with it, we are satisfied with what we did and the feedback so far is positive. We had a high number of players and that was great to see.”
During the semi-finals, the Rocks Lane champions faced determined opposition in the form of Manuel Arrizabalaga and Paco Quintana who forced the match into a third set but the resolve required to overcome such hurdles was found by Vega and Salisbury who took the game 3-6, 6-2,7-5.
Meanwhile, in the other semi-final there was an exciting match with Gaspar and Mas overcoming Julio Alvaro and Enrique Beneytez Martinez in a 6-4, 7-6(1) victory.
The women’s doubles championship was brought to a dramatic ending with Lisa Phillips and Abigail Tordoff taking the crown with a crafty performance that saw them beat Elizabeth Fletcher and Claire Smith 6-4,6-3.
Phillips and Tordoff were also able to convincingly dispatch Natasha Marks and Catherine Rose 6-2,6-4 in their semi-final.
Fletcher and Smith were good enough to earn a spot in the final as they showed the quality that was needed to get the better of Denise Negro and Shoko Okamura, taking the match 6-2,6-4.
In the men’s over 40’s competition Craig De Silva and Nick Yates powered through their matches to be crowned the champions which included a nail biting 3-6,6-4,6-2 triumph over Diego Sterpetti and Andrew Warren.
I the women’s over 40’s side of the event, Helen Crook and Jo Ward looked a force to be reckoned with as they were deserving victors by dispatching Kate Hands-Digby and Kerry White 6-2,7-5 in the final.
There was also more action in the women’s over 50’s category after Sally Fisher and Anthea Hunt found the cutting edge to secure the championship against Justine Jenkins and Maria Pylas in a 6-4,6-3 triumph.
Meanwhile in the men’s over 50’s event Andrew and Chris Warren dominated proceedings as they never looked under pressure in a 6-2,6-0 win against Minter Dial and Paul Thomas.
Tournament director Vega also pinpointed the growing tendency for tennis players to get involved within padel tournaments which helps with the bigger picture in setting up more exciting and higher quality padel matches.
He said: “There were a few surprises, there were tennis players just getting into the sport and they didn’t have ranking points, they were beating seeded people and the level of competition is growing, hopefully with more clubs and more investment, we will see the standard go up.
“It was our first time hosting an event like this and we are looking forward to the next one, this club by September will have eleven courts and we want to organise more events similar to the one last weekend. “
More info on tournament sponsors can be found at adidas, Playtomic, Drop Shot UK, and Padel Corner.
