Action during the all-Spanish first round between Sergio Icardo/Miguel Benítez and Jorge Nieto/Miguel Yanguas.
Doha: The opening leg of the Category 1 events of the brand new Premier Padel Tour, Ooredoo Qatar Major 2022 kicked off with exciting battles in Doha, yesterday.
The first round saw a number of international stars looking to advance at the Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex.
Argentine duo Ramiro Moyano and Juan Belwati displayed a superb show to beat Italian pair of Daniel Cattaneo and Ricardo Sinekrobi with a 7-6, 6-1 score-line.
Brazil’s Lucas da Cuna and Spain’s Angio Zarategui staged a brilliant fightback as they rallied to beat Spaniards David Fernandez and Luis Pozo 6-2, 4-6, 6-4, while Mark Quills and Benno Toni won the all-Spanish face-off against Javier Rico and Jeronimo Gonzalez with a 0-6, 7-5, 6-1 score-line to advance.
However, Qatari players did not have much luck in the opening day of the new Tour.
Action during yesterday's first round.
Qatar’s multi-talented athlete Mohammed Saadon Al Kuwari and Abdulaziz Saadon Al Kuwari were outplayed by Ruben Rivera and Denis Tomas Perino. The Spanish-Italian duo advanced with a 6-2, 6-2 win in 58 minutes.
Meanwhile, Qatari wild card entrants, Jabor Al Mutawa and Mohammed Al Khanji were beaten by Spaniards Jose Carlos Gaspar and Cayetano Rocafort in straight sets (6-1, 6-2).
Qatar’s Abdulla Alhijji and Mohammed Abdulla were blanked 0-6, 0-6 by Cristian Gutierrez and Daniel Windahl in another match later in the evening.
Meanwhile, top eight pairs, including World No.1 Juan Lebrón Chincoa and Alejandro Galan Romo of Spain, will start their journey in Premier Padel from second round after they received byes.
Francisco Navarro (Spain)/ Martin Di Nenno (Argentina), Alejandro Ruiz Granados (Spain)/ Franco Stupaczuk (Argentina) and Fed-erico Chingotto (Argentina)/Juan Tello (Argentina) and Pablo Jose Mongelo De Lima (Brazil)/Maximilano Sanchez Aguero (Argentina), F Belasteguin (Argentina)/ A Coello (Spain), C Gutierrez (Argentina)/ A Gutierrez (Argentina) and L Capra (Argentina)/ J R Gonzalez (Spain) will also start in the second round. The event carries a record prize-money of $575,000.
In addition to the prize money, the winning pair will earn 2000 ranking points while the finalists will receive 1200 points.
