“I play at the net and on the volley”. In tennis, Adriano Panatta spent a lifetime choosing to attack, and that’s why his style hasn’t changed. At the Allianz Cloud for the Oysho Milano Premier Padel P1 finals, Panatta today watched top-level padel for the very first time. “I’m intrigued by the movements”, he explained. “The funniest thing for us tennis players is that when the ball goes past you, in tennis you’re done, the point is over. But here, the rally starts again”.
Two different sports, yet with some points in common: “Yes, especially the volley. It’s very similar. But using the walls really makes a difference”. At 75 years old, Panatta still has fun, both as a commentator on La Domenica Sportiva and on the courts of his own club, the Adriano Panatta Racquet Club in Treviso: “I really enjoy myself, even if it annoys me when they lob over me (he laughs), and it happens often because I don’t move like I used to, but I still have fun”.
If tennis can be played alone, padel is played in pairs , and who better as a partner than Paolo Bertolucci? The jokes between the two champions are famous: “He doesn’t even play billiards anymore. I see him now sitting in the evening in front of the TV, watching soap operas and sipping hot broth”. Sara Errani has already made her debut on the professional padel circuit, but “nowadays there are very few players who really know how to play well at the net”, Panatta concluded. “Guys like McEnroe, Becker, Noah, or Edberg, they’d be great at it.”