Padel shines under the gaze of NBA stars at the Reserve Cup

Fourteen of the world’s best padel players crossed the pond to compete in the second tournament of a golden preseason. Following the success of the Hexagon Cup in Madrid, Miami witnessed last weekend a competition that gathered everything needed for padel to continue attracting the masses: world sports stars, a format with groundbreaking rules, and a lot of money at stake.

Who was behind the Reserve Cup?

Jimmy Butler, NBA star and Miami Heats player, along with Wayne Boich, CEO of Reserve Padel club and organizer of the 2022 World Padel Tour Miami Open, were the promoters of the competition.

The Reserve Cup brought together two teams of seven players who were chosen through a draft. Jimmy Butler and Derek Jeter, legend of the New York Yankees, acted as the captains. This is how the teams stood after Thursday’s selection:

• Team Reserve: Alejandro Galán, Juan Lebrón, Jon Sanz, Coki Nieto, Javi Garrido, Mike Yanguas, and Gonzalo Rubio.
• Team Miami: Franco Stupaczuk, Martín Di Nenno, Federico Chingotto, Álex Ruíz, Maxi Sánchez, Juan Tello, and Momo González.

The event encompassed nine matches with different scores that were disputed in three different rounds. The matches on Thursday contributed one point each to the winning team, those on Friday two, and those on Saturday three.

The matches were played in the best of three sets, with the peculiarity that if it reached the third, it would be decided through a super tie-break. On the other hand, a novel rule was included that allowed teams to change one of the players in the pair during a match, as occurs in other sports such as football or basketball.

The competition had a total of half a million euros in prize money, becoming the event that distributed the most money in prizes per player in the history of padel.

Team Miami swept with a splendid Superpibes and the 2.0 version of Juan Tello and Fede Chingotto

The team led by Derek Jeter won the first edition of the Reserve Cup with a general result of 13-5 after successfully handling top-level matches. This is how the competition unfolded:

The first day, marked by rain in Miami

After the celebration of the draft, the tournament began with a unique duel, as Javi Garrido and Juan Lebrón competed against Juan Tello and Fede Chingotto who reunited the ‘Cat’ and the ‘Mouse’ duo. The Andalusian players were trailing throughout the match but managed to lift the second set to prevail in the super tie-break by 10-5.

The second encounter pitted Alejandro Galán and Gonzalo Rubio against Maxi Sánchez and Di Nenno. It had to be postponed to Friday due to rain when the score was 5-4 and serving for the Spaniards. Upon resumption, the “Chaqueño” Franco Stupaczuk replaced Maxi Sánchez, and the Superpibes ended up winning the match in the super tie-break (7-6, 3-6, 10-6).

To close the day, Mike Yanguas and Coki Nieto showed what they can offer on the 20×10 this season by defeating 6-4, 6-4 Momo González and Álex Ruiz, who competed together again after partnering in 2022 and early 2023.

With these results, the first day ended with Team Miami leading the scoreboard 2-1.

Second day: the Hexagon Cup pairs prevailed again

On Friday, the Team Miami pairs formed by Tello/Di Nenno and Stupaczuk/Ruiz, who also competed together in the Hexagon Cup, won their respective matches to put a considerable advantage on the overall scoreboard. The Argentine pair overcame Galán/Sanz by 6-3, 7-6, while the “Chaqueño” and the “Captain America” clearly defeated Garrido/Rubio by 6-4, 6-2.

In the match that closed the day, Fede Chingotto and Maxi Sánchez showed very solid play against Juan Lebrón and Coki Nieto to sign a resounding 6-1, 6-4.

Thus, Derek Jeter’s team was 7-2 ahead in the overall, just one victory away from being proclaimed champions mathematically.

Third day: The Superpibes put forward their candidacy for number one

Team Miami did its job in the first match to take the competition. The current number seven pair of Premier Padel formed by Álex Ruiz and Juan Tello overcame in a very close match (6-1, 4-6, 10-7) the number ten pair composed of Javi Garrido and Mike Yanguas.

The spectacle of the day was given by Stupaczuk and Di Nenno against Galán and Lebrón. The Superpibes showed great synergy to win in two sets against what is considered the first pair in the Premier Padel ranking, which seemed not to be as well-prepared.

The last match of the competition allowed Team Reserve to improve the final result. Coki Nieto and Jon Sanz showed their versatility near the net to win by 6-4, 6-3 against the new union of Momo González and Fede Chingotto.