Ale Alonso and Andrea Ustero, in two, make 35 years. The future is in their hands, but so is the present: the Allianz Cloud fans has already fallen in love with two of the rising stars of world padel. One, the 2007 Ustero, is already sure of a place in the Premier Padel Finals; the other, Alonso (born in 2006), today took a huge step towards Barcelona. At the end of a marathon of two hours and 32 minutes, Alonso and Ustero overcame 7-5 4-6 6-1 Lucia Sainz and Patty Llaguno, the number 5 seed and totems of Spanish padel and beyond. “Being close to the Finals means so much – Ale said –. We have been fighting all season for this result. It would be a dream to be able to play the Finals with my partner, with whom I have a lot of fun on the court”. Italy has already met Alonso and Ustero, who won the FIP European Padel Championships in Cagliari last July with the Spanish national team. In Milano, however, Ale and Andrea will find in the semifinals Delfi Brea and Bea Gonzalez, defending champions and already faced in the final of the P1 in Dubai (won 6-2 6-3 by Delfi and Bea), Alonso and Ustero’s first in the Premier Padel circuit as a pair.
Ustero, however, had played a final, and it had not been a match like the others: in the Paris Major, at Roland Garros, with Bea Gonzalez injured, it had been Delfi Brea who had shared the same half-court with the young Andrea. Tomorrow, however, they will be opponents, with Delfi and Bea having already indirectly done the youngster a ‘favour’. By beating Veronica Virseda 7-6 6-1 and Aranzazu Osoro (8), a possible contender for a place in the Finals is out of the run. Alonso, in fact, takes off right behind the ‘Vikinga’, with only Tamara Icardo now able to challenge for 16th and last place in the FIP Race to Barcelona, the very city where Ustero was born: “I can’t wait to play the Finals at home, in front of my family. I advise young people not to give up, not to get into bad habits and to start doing things right from the beginning”. Andrea and Ale are doing just that, with Ustero already sure to realise her dream of playing the Finals; Alonso, on the other hand, is getting closer and closer to the finish line.