Everybody triumphant in Rome’s outdoor disco with Galan/Lebron on the dancefloor

The Grandstand Arena loudspeakers were blasting out Gala’s Freed From Desire song, the Italy Major Premier Padel tournament anthem from now on. This time Juan Lebron and Ale Galan danced away inside the cage together with the a full capacity crowd in the stands. The Foro Italico madness was all for them, after they conquered the final 4-6 7-6 6-4 against long-time rivals Paquito Navarro and Martin Di Nenno, the only players who are really capable of keeping them on tenterhooks.

There have been other occasions where the no. 1 pair have had to surrender, as in the final of the first Premier Padel Major tournament in Doha, but not in Rome. In front of a crowd like this they were seeking revenge and wanted to defend their no. 1 FIP world ranking. They succeeded brilliantly, coming back from a set down and playing an intense, yet balanced match.

Galan and Lebron dropped the first set, due to the former’s hesitancy at times, under-par overhead shots and weaker performance than by the other three players. Nevertheless, he gradually picked up steam, enlivening the crowd with his teammate and taking in its energy, and ended up playing flawless Padel when the time came to claw their way back from the brink. The second set match report shows two break points saved in the fourth game and three in the eighth game, but the defense worked and despite the bad spell the no. 1 pair was able to deliver.

The key game was at 5-5, when a feeling of tie-break was in the air. Yet the two Spaniards pulled out of the hat four game wins in a row which changed the course of the match. The first and second game they won earned them the second set, the third and fourth game put them a break ahead in the third set, an advantage they held onto for dear life, without ever compromising the score right up to Galan’s exclamation-mark ending after two and a half hours’ play with a winning smash worthy of the strongest in the world.

The moments that followed matchpoint were a show, within the bigger show that had gone on up until then inside the cage. Adrenaline-filled Lebron spent five minutes jumping, dancing, hugging anyone, simply oozing joy. Galan even jumped up into the stands to hug people, like a rockstar during a gig.

Judging by the chanting that was heard throughout the match, the public would have preferred a victory for its idol Paquito, the most charismatic among Padel’s elite athletes, but the emotions during the match were genuinely high all the same. This was the case the entire week in Rome: while Padel is going through a historic development which will catapult it into the limelight, spectators aren't buying (for now?) tickets for any one pair in particular, what they like is to enjoy high value sports entertainment, have fun, sing and dance.

This is professional Padel nowadays: personalities that the public is getting to know better and better and to appreciate more and more come together in a festive atmosphere worth experiencing even by those who aren’t fans. This is what makes a true global boom likely for Padel. As said by many players over the course of the week, there’s a before and an after Rome for Padel. Italy was the backdrop for this much-needed acceleration, and it is what makes us proud.