The men’s final of the Malaga Open 2023 pitted local heroes Alex Ruiz and his partner Juan Tello against the biggest names on tour, Tapia and Coello.
The number ones arrived at the event after failing to win the last three World Padel Tour tournaments. However, they had the incentive of having won the titles in Rome and Madrid in Premier Padel. Ruiz and Tello were in their first final as a couple after reaching the semifinals on several occasions.
The number 1 pairing got off to a better start with a very convincing performance. It didn’t take them long to break to put some distance on the scoreboard. At 5-3, Coello and Tapia were ready to close out the first set on serve. However, they didn’t expect Ruiz and Tello to come out on the counterattack to win back what they had lost. The couple 6 managed to break and went 5-4, just one step away from levelling the match with their serve. With suffering, but managed to put the 5-5 with a golden point, whose resolution would bring a deafening applause from the Malaga fans.
¡El Gato volador!#WPTMálagaOpen☀️ pic.twitter.com/ZqoDao2804
— World Padel Tour (@WorldPadelTour) July 30, 2023
When it looked like the first set would go to a tiebreak, Arturo and Agustin broke their opponents’ serve. A shot from Tapia that Tello narrowly missed gave the golden point to the number 1’s, who closed out the set 7-5.
In the second set, both couples were evenly matched again. Each was strong on their serve and were adding games to their scoreboard. However, it didn’t take much for the number 1’s to do damage in the return game. In the eighth game, they would get a decisive break thanks to a four-metre smash from Coello on golden point. 5-3 and serve for Pablo Crosetti’s players.
Arturo and Agustín lived the same experience as in the first set, succumbing again to Álex and Juan, who broke their serve and, with theirs, made it 5-5.
The big difference from the first set was that this time it would be a tiebreak. Despite the good start for Alex and Juan, it would be Agustin and Arturo who would give the final push to take the tiebreak and put another title on the line.
With 7-5 and 7-6 Agustin Tapia and Arturo Coello win another title in Malaga and put an end to the streak that Stupaczuk and Di Nenno had, winners of the last three tournaments of the circuit.
