Miguel Lamperti, 45 years old and still wanting to have fun. The Argentinean, paired with Spaniard José Jimenez Casas, has qualified for the main draw of Milan Premier Padel P1, which starts tomorrow with the first round matches (at the Allianz Cloud, play will begin at 10am). Lamperti/Jimenez Casas, in the second and decisive qualifying round, defeated Cordoba/Montiel Caruso in three sets (6-3 2-6 6-3 in one hour and 42 minutes). After dropping the second set, then, in the decisive one Lamperti and Jimenez Casas did not fail. Tomorrow – third match on the centre court, not before 12.30 p.m. -, the generational clash against Italian Flavio Abbate, who is only 19, 26 years younger than Lamperti. Abbate, from Sicily, paired with Marco Cassetta will try to take advantage of the wild card to go on to challenge Franco Stupaczuk and Martin Di Nenno, the ‘Superpibes’, third seed, in the second round.
Five out of the eight seeded players on the qualifying list had their tickets for the main draw: Vilariño/Oria (2) and Italo-Argentine Nicolas Suescun fro, who with the Spaniard Victor Mena got the better of another Italo-Argentine, Emiliano Iriart, playing with Pablo Castillo Valverde, in three sets (6-1 2-6 6-1). Three pairs were ahead against the odds: Leygue/Insa, Araujo/Rodriguez Martinez (who had beaten Mercadal/Rivera in the first round of the ‘quali’) and Hernandez Quesada/Jofre, who gave up only six games to Ortega/Martì (6-2 6-4).
In the women’s draw, on the other hand, the first round of the qualifiers was played, which was fatal to the Italian wild cards Caterina Maria Baldi and Valentina Tommasi, defeated 6-4 6-2 by Lopez/Schuck Silva. Good entry for Patri Martinez Fortun and Águeda Pérez Ortiz, number 1 on the qualifying list: 6-0 6-4 to Dominguez Gracia/Fito Fernandez. Tomorrow, on court number 3, the four decisive matches to fill the last boxes of the main draw.
TOMORROW After the qualifiers are over, the temperature will rise tomorrow at the Allianz Cloud. While waiting for the big players, it will be the Italians who will take centre stage. In the second match on the Centre, the wild cards Giulio Graziotti and Riccardo Sinicropi cross Lijo/Cepero. Then, after the match between Abbate/Cassetta and Lamperti/Jimenez Casas, the fifth match will feature Italian champions Simone Cremona and Lorenzo Di Giovanni, opposing Spaniards Teodoro Zapata and Francisco Guerrero. On court number 1 it will be the turn of the Italo-Argentines Aris Patiniotis and Facundo Dominguez against the Spaniards Huete Hernandez/Gil; on court number 2, finally, the other Italo-Argentine Denis Perino and the Spaniard Jorge Ruiz will test the condition of the Spanish brothers Pedro and Alvaro Melendez.