Euro Final 8, Men’s Day1: Portugal wins with a scare, Spain dominant, Italy wins with a comeback

It’s one of the less celebrated but most beautiful aspects of any big international competition: when, alongside the favorite teams and well-known champions, new nations emerge with fresh ambition in a sport that keeps growing. That’s exactly what happened on Day 1 of the men’s FIP Euro Padel Cup Final 8. In the evening at the Plaza de Toros in La Línea de la Concepción, the young and talented Sweden – the team with the lowest average age in the event (25 years) – pushed Portugal to the limit before losing 2–1 in the final Group A tie of the day. It was still an excellent result, considering that Sweden had lost 3–0 to Portugal in both of their last meetings (in Cagliari and Doha), while the Portuguese finished third at the European Championships and also earned bronze at the World Padel Championships. This time, Släryd and Axelsson beat the Deus brothers 7–6, 4–6, 6–3 to level the tie after Olsson and Windahl lost the first match in two tie-breaks to Perry and Fazendeiro. Finally, Araujo and Luque completed the comeback, defeating Appelgren/Rutgersson 4–6, 6–3, 6–4.

There was another surprise in Group B, where the Netherlands nearly upset Italy, last year’s runner-up. Sten Richters and Thijs Roper gave the Dutch an early lead by beating Giulio Graziotti and Simone Iacovino (6–3, 6–2), but debutants Flavio Abbate and Alvaro Montiel leveled the score (6–1, 6–2 vs Van Betuw/Prins). The deciding point came from Aris Patiniotis and Marco Cassetta, who sealed the win 6–2, 6–3 against Groen/Nolten. In the other match of the group, France beat Germany 3–0, thanks to wins by Tison/Joris (6–4, 6–0 vs Böhnke/Merten), Bergeron/Blanque (6–2, 7–6 vs Reca/Wunner), and Guichard/Vives (6–0, 6–3 vs Lindmeyer/Morales Krück).

No problems for Spain, leading Group A. David Gala and Pol Hernandez opened with a 6–2, 6–3 win over Loughlan/Harris from Great Britain. Then Alvaro Cepero and Juanlu Esbri won 6–2, 7–5 against Jones/Medina Murphy, before Diestro and Alex Ruiz closed the 3–0 victory with a 6–3, 6–1 win over Farquharson/Patacho.