Guernsey padel tennis doubles players Liam De La Mare and Stan Hunt have become the first British juniors to reach the Semi-Finals of an International U18 tournament of the FIP Promises event.
The FIP Promises Tour was set up by the International Padel Federation in 2023 to encourage junior padel players to compete internationally, this year it consists of 17 events across Europe and South America with events in U14, U16 and U18 categories.
The tournament, held in Bristol last weekend, marked the first FIP junior event to be held in the UK and attracted players from Spain, Mexico, Sweden, and Italy as well as Britain’s strongest boys.
De La Mare and Hunt met fellow Guernsey player, Cameron Gomes in the first round. Often paired with his twin brother Luke, Cameron had partnered with Spaniard Toni Villena Quiros. In a closely fought contest, De La Mare and Hunt eventually prevailed in a match tie break 2-6, 6-3, 11-9.
Reflecting on the weekend’s performance, De La Mare said: “It was an amazing experience and a fantastic tournament run by R3. The U18 event ran alongside the professional tournament so to be able to play in front of large crowds was great. I was really pleased with how Stan and I played throughout the weekend. Our first match was incredibly close winning a championship tiebreak 12-10. The Spanish pair we lost to in the semi finals we very good but we felt we played really well against them. It was great to win the 3rd/4th play off to cap off the great weekend. I just want to keep going and reach the latter strands of the professional event in a few years time. They are all so good, but I believe I can get there.”
In the semi-finals, the boys faced the Number 2 seeds from Spain; Adrian Molina and Adrian Reina, who are ranked 39 and 86 in the World Junior Rankings respectively.
In a tight match, the Spanish duo were too strong and won 6-3, 6-2 but the match was close with many rallies and deuce points.
Hunt agreed with his partner that it was a great event to play at.
“It was a great experience to play people our own age from all over the world and compare our level to other teenagers. We were unseeded, so super happy to come third overall – a great achievement and a reflection of the hard work we have both put in.”