za. 9 nov. As unbeaten group winner, the men's team could not beat Spain for the 2nd time in the final, but proudly go home with SILVER! The women's team could not take revenge against Spain in the match for 3rd place and finishes 4th.

The first ever European Padel Championships took place in Malaga, Spain in the form of a team competition with 4 countries (Belgium, Spain, Italy and Sweden) for both men and women. The first stage was 1 group with everyone playing against each other. This was then followed by a final and a match for 3rd place.

Men

The men's team achieved a big surprise by becoming group winner. Outsider Italy and Sweden were easily swept aside with a 3-0 victory. On the third day, they even won from top favourite Spain with 2-1!

Spain was therefore obliged to enter the final in the strongest line-up and unfortunately the men's team could not repeat the surprise. A silver medal is the reward but maybe there was more in it if David and Gauthier won the 1st match after winning the 2nd set 6-0? Bart and Sven suffered a logical defeat in the 2nd match against Spain's number 1. Unfortunately, the 3rd match that would normally be slightly in our favour became redundant...

Final ranking:

Spain
Belgium
Sweden
Italy

Women

On the 1st day, the level difference with the Italian ladies proved too big (0-3). A handsome 2-1 win against Sweden followed afterwards and yet the Belgian ladies let themselves be surprised against Spain (1-2), allowing Sweden to advance to the final thanks to a better balance in the sets (+1 for SWE, 0 for ESP and -1 for BEL).

The women's team could then take revenge against Spain in the match for 3rd place, but as with the men, the 1st match was lost which was not calculated. Otherwise, a bronze medal was definitely achievable as the 3rd match was also in our favour. After a bad start, Céline and Tess found the key to win the 1st match, but unfortunately lost 2x 4-6. Afterwards, the Spanish number 1 were a size too big for Manon and Natalie.

Final ranking:

Italiy
Sweden
Spain
Belgium

E.C. 2026

In the closing ceremony, it was announced that the next E.C. 2026 will take place in Belgium thanks to main sponsor Keytrade Bank.

The national team was unaware of this in order to keep the focus on this E.C. and was very pleased with this positive news :-)
So keep training to do even better is the message!

National selection

4/11/2024: arrival in Malaga

5/11/2024: BEL - ITA

Result Men: BEL - ITA 3-0

Bart Uzeel/Dylan Mallieu - F. De Giorgio/M. Di Marco : 6-2, 6-2
Gauthier de Jamblinne/David Maso - L. Brandani/L. Lentini : 7-6, 6-3
Sven Verstraete/Vasco Van Landuyt - L. Ponzo/A. Kuzbinski : 6-4, 6-3

In the 1st game, Bart and Dylan doubted they would win against the Italians. After a cautious start, they started playing well together confidently with an easy win as a result. Then it was the turn of Gauthier and David who were not comfortable. They had a hard time adjusting to the strong Italian opponents. After narrowly winning the 1st set in the tie-break, our favourites found a strategy to beat the Italians comfortably. With a win in the pocket, Sven and Vasco were reassured. Like a well-oiled machine, they were able to brush aside the Italians for the 3rd time!

Result Women: BEL - ITA 0-3

Natalie Bekaert/Caroline Inzoli - S. Ricci/V. Ricci : 0-6, 1-6
Céline Cornia/Manon Mallieu - A. Capriotti/G. Bassini : 4-6, 5-7
Barbara Lezy/Tess Desmidt - S. Gerini/S. Batresi : 1-6, 3-6

Natalie and Caroline wanted to match each other to play better but the 2 Italian players were far too strong. Then Céline and Manon knew the 2nd game was going to be very important. The 1st set was difficult and they lost 4-6. Then they took a very good start with a 5-2 lead that unfortunately was stopped by the Italian players who played point by point with a different strategy and won 5 games in a row. In the last match, Barbara and Tess tried to hang on but the level difference with the Italian ladies was also too big.