Paquito on the backhand – claim first victory of the year

In their debut match at the Premier Padel Qatar Major, Paquito Navarro and Juan Tello managed to come back from a difficult match against the revelation couple of the last WPT Abu Dhabi Master.

After the tough elimination suffered by Navarro and Tello in the first tournament of the season, it was time for the number three ranked couple to make their debut in the Premier Padel Qatar Major.

The Spanish-Argentine pairing's opponents were none other than Ivan Ramirez and Pablo Cardona, who had been the surprise team of the WPT Abu Dhabi tournament last week.

The match started off even, with both pairings looking to take the lead. Although Ramirez and Cardona seemed more comfortable on court, both teams managed to hold their serve, to take the set to a tie-break.

But there, the doubts in the Navarro/Tello team returned, and mistakes at key moments punished the number threes, who saw the first set slip away from them.

When everything seemed to indicate a similar outcome to last week's match, an unexpected twist changed the course of the game. An annoyed Paquito Navarro on the bench asked Tello to play on the backhand side, and the Argentine agreed.

The Spanish-Argentine team came out for the second set with a different attitude, and without letting their opponents react, they took the second set by storm, 6-0.

With Paquito much more comfortable on the left side and a (surprisingly) definitive Tello on the right, the pair took Cardona and Ramirez by surprise. At the end of the match, the score was 6/7 6/0 and 6/3, giving Paquito and Tello their first win of the season.

"I have trained many hours on the right side. It's not my home, but as long as the old man is happy on his side, we can keep it that way. Don't be surprised if you see me on the right side of the court again in the next match,” said Juan Tello after the match.

“Surprise our rivals”

The team had shown tactical changes in previous matches, with both players switching sides during their service, although for Navarro Tello's display during the match was a complete surprise:

"We had talked about it before, but I was very surprised with the performance of "el gato" on the forehand. It's very good to have the option to change sides and surprise our rivals,” said Paco.

Tomorrow, in the last sixteen, the pair will face the number nine pairing of the tournament, Maxi Sanchez and Lucas Campagnolo.