Dec. 10 – The yellow balls. Not the Wilson ones, used by the kings of padel to fight on the Allianz Central court. Or at least, not only those. There are others, almost as big as a 5-a-side or basic football ball, albeit colorful ones. They are the tools of padel fans. Scenes already seen on the sidelines of big tennis tournaments: an army of teens and children – but not only, many adults masquerade behind the request “for my kids, you know, they’re young…” but really, the autograph is for them – who hunt for signatures with yellow balls, T-shirts caps, jackets and notebooks at the end of each match. This is one of the parameters of padel’s growth: the rush of dozens of people to the barriers between the stands and the field for the autograph ritual of the SuperPadelists.
“Excuse me, do you know where Bela and Coello come out of?” a ‘storm’ of youngsters asked us yesterday as they passed around the most valuable tool of the tournament, so hard to be found in recent days: the black indelible marker for the big guys’ signatures. Thus, golden deals for stationery stores, hardware stores and tobacco stores: “If I had a thousand, I would have sold them in a few hours,” said the owner of a shop near Allianz Cloud. Oh, yes, like an autograph from Lebron and Galan or a signature on Bela’s yellow ball, the black indelible marker has become a star in Milano Premier Padel P1. And yesterday, when Belasteguin after signing an autograph held it in his hand, we read the panic on one boy’s face, only a moment before saying, “Oh, whatever, he’s Bela and he’s got my marker, what can I say!?” For the record: Bela gave the marker back to him almost immediately, and you should have seen the care with which that little boy put it away.