Sanyo Gutierrez: "Tennis shows us the way, but we refuse to follow it"
In an interview with Padel20's Twitch channel, Sanyo Gutiérrez evaluated the start of the season alongside Fernando Belasteguín, and talked about the path that padel should follow to evolve as a sport.
After a very successful 2022 season next to Agustín Tapia, Sanyo Gutiérrez has teamed up again with "El Boss" Fernando Belasteguín, in a 2.0 version of the couple. The duo have had a mixed start to the season, but Sanyo's evaluation after these first tournaments has been positive.
"We decided to come back together because we thought it was the best option, we see padel in a similar way and we can turn situations around during matches" said the magician from San Luis in the interview with journalist Carles Prat, from Padel20.
In their first tournament together, in Abu Dhabi, the pairing lost in the quarter finals to the "Superpibes", Martin Di Nenno and Franco Stupaczuk, who they crossed paths with again in the final of the Premier Padel Qatar Major a week later.
"We are doing well and we are happy with the level we have shown. In the first tournament we came up against a superior Martin and Franco, but in Qatar we had a great tournament, in fact, we had a chance in the second set of the final”.
After their brief participation in the La Rioja Open, the couple decided to withdraw from the WPT South American tour due to family reasons.
" We are sorry we couldn't finish the tour. Chile and Paraguay have always treated us very well, but sometimes there are more important things than sporting matters," said Sanyo.
"There is a sport that shows us the way"
It was precisely at the Argentine Open tournament where Sanyo and Bela obtained their worst result, losing their debut match against Ruiz and Bergamini by 5/7 3/6. The conditions of the court - extremely fast - added to the short adaptation time, meant the premature farewell of the couple of the competition.
"In La Rioja it was a difficult situation. I'm in favour of changing the type of court between tournaments, but we didn't adapt to a court that was totally different to the one we found in Qatar".
He continued:
"Victor and Lucas had four days of training there. For a couple that plays without even half an hour of training on the court it's difficult. There wasn't a single point that lasted more than 25 seconds".
Sanyo says he agrees with the variation in the types of courts from one tournament to another, but the change should be more organised. The Argentinean star believes that one of the solutions would be to divide the tournaments by type of surface, just like in tennis.
"There is a sport that shows us the way, which is tennis, but we refuse to follow it. I agree that there should be different surfaces, but ideally the previous tournaments should allow you to adapt to those surfaces," he concluded.
