Day1. Olympia celebrates Medina Murphy. More centre-court action awaits him tonight

All eyes at Olympia London were on Christian Medina Murphy, the brightest British hope among the wild cards at the London Premier Padel P1. And Medina Murphy, currently No. 173 in the FIP rankings and a player who had reached at least the semi-finals in each of his last five CUPRA FIP Tour events, lived up to expectations. Partnering Spain’s Alberto Garcia, he defeated qualifiers Agustin Gutierrez and Santino Giuliani 6-2 6-2 to earn another appearance on centre court, where he and Garcia will face 10th seeds Juan Tello and Maxi Arce. That match will bring the day’s programme on centre court to a close, with play beginning at 10 a.m. local time (11 a.m. CEST).

 

The opening day of the first-ever Premier Padel tournament in the United Kingdom also completed the men’s first round. Arturo Coello and Agustin Tapia will begin their campaign against Portuguese brothers Nuno and Miguel Deus (with Rodrigo, Arturo’s younger brother, also progressing to the second round), while Fede Chingotto and Ale Galan, fresh from their Pretoria title, will open against Italians Flavio Abbate and Alvaro Montiel. Also making their debut after reaching the final in South Africa will be seventh seeds Fran Guerrero and Javi Leal, who face Mariano Gonzalez and Curro Cabeza. The longest match of Day 1 saw Denis Perino and Facundo Dominguez prevail over Valenzuela/Martinez after two hours and 57 minutes.

 

WOMEN After the first four matches were played yesterday, the opening round of the women’s draw will be completed today, setting the round-of-16 match-ups, where the top four seeds will enter the competition. There was no fairy-tale start for British wild cards Aimee Gibson and Catherine Rose, who battled hard before falling 6-1 7-6 to Alix Collombon and Ksenia Sharifova. Marina Guinart and Ale Alonso, meanwhile, were forced to come from a set down before overcoming Araceli Martinez and Laura Lujan.