China, from Polo-Lobo to Nunes-Sans. Shanghai welcomes the top players

Modern skyscrapers, historic districts and a beautiful city: the CUPRA FIP Tour arrives in Shanghai, where the stars of padel will take to the court to contest the third FIP Gold of the year, following those in Almaty (Kazakhstan) and Ponta Delgada (Portugal). Matches will be played at the IPC Padel Jiangwan International Padel Centre: the main draw will begin on Friday 12 June and conclude on Sunday 14 June, the day on which the semi-finals and finals will be played.

 

Leading the women’s draw are Laia Rodriguez and Noa Canovas, world No. 33 and 36 in the FIP Ranking, who this year have triumphed at the FIP Silver in Espoo, Finland, and the FIP Bronze in Latina: in China they will not play the first round and will start from the round of 16. The No. 1 seeds are in the upper half of the draw alongside Julia Polo (54) and Marina Lobo (52), who in the round of 16 will face Alena Vasileva and Kotomi Ozawa. At the end of May, Polo and Lobo won the FIP Bronze in Pembroke, Malta. On the opposite side of the draw are the No. 2 seeds Marta Borrero (43) and Giorgia Marchetti (56), and the pair formed by Claudia Escacena (61) and Patri Martinez (55). In the first round of the main draw, the top seeds will face Wu Wei-Ranran Zheng, while the second pair will meet Nadia Aida Acuna and Leire Uriarte.

 

The No. 1 seeds in the men’s draw are Denis Perino and Arnau Ayats, finalists this year at the FIP Silver in Caen. In the round of 16, they will face the Chinese wild cards Beihang Fu and Haoxuan He. They are among the favourites for the title, but in Shanghai there will also be other strong pairs such as Portuguese Gustavo Nunes and Spain’s Tonet Sans: in their opening match they will face Andres and Arturo Calzada. Also in the spotlight is the recent winner of the FIP Silver in Bandol, Ignacio Archieri, who will compete alongside Victor Mena, winner of three FIP Silver titles this year (Caltanissetta, Wadi and Timisoara). Among the entries are also Miguel Melero and Nico Zurita, who last week lifted the FIP Bronze title in Istanbul. In the round of 16, Archieri-Mena and Melero-Zurita will face respectively Yuanqin Du-Xinjian Jiang e Jose Antonio Canorea-Antonio Sanchez.