Advertisement
The United States were winners of the first-ever Anglo American Padel Cup at Padel Hub North London on Saturday night with a 53-43 victory over its old sporting nemesis Great Britain.
In what was a tense finale to the inaugural Ryder Cup-style competition, Team USA earned this historic victory in the 47th of 48 matches played over the two days.
With USA holding a 25-15 lead after the opening day, it was the British team that came out of the blocks fastest on day two, the final day of the competition.
Inspired by early victories from Open Mixed pairings Laura Jackson & George Weller, and Alice Keddie & Rafa Vega, Team GB steadily ate into the deficit, winning match after match, and then pulled ahead to lead by 37 points to 35 by the afternoon.
With two matches to be completed – after 46 hard fought matches played – the Cup was still up for grabs.
GB needed to win both matches, but fell short when the Men’s 60+ US no.1 pair of Ron Bobman and Tom Bartzen secured victory over Team GB’s Sandy Case and Minter Dial to clinch the victory for Team USA.
Even though the Cup had been won, players and spectators remained riveted for the final match, an intense battle between the Women’s Open no.2 pairs.
Ultimately Dhany Quevedo and Antonella Santeusanio prevailed over Team GB’s Alice Keddie and Victoria Nicholas in a 7-6, 7-6 thriller that featured superb shotmaking by both sides and had the crowd roaring with cheers and applause for both teams. It was a truly spectacular ending to the first Anglo American Padel Cup.
Anglo American Cup Founders, Ben Nichols, Joelle Quinn and Bill Ullman (pictured above) said: “Our congratulations to Team USA for winning the first ever Anglo American Padel Cup.
“This event turned out to be many things – an extraordinarily exciting competition, a contest that added a new chapter to the historic sporting rivalry between the US and GB and a showcase for the amazing padel talent developing in both countries. Most of all, it was a celebration of the game of padel itself and people who play and love the sport.
Advertisement
“We would like to express a huge thanks to our title partners Playtomic and Babolat, whose support enabled us to turn our vision for this unique sporting contest into reality. Most of all, we thank the American and British players who will forever be remembered as the pioneers that committed to the first ever Anglo American Cup and made major efforts to be part of history. We cannot wait until next year’s version in the USA!”
Team USA Women’s co-captains Ana Magrini and Lisa Teer said: “We are so proud and honoured to have competed as the US Women’s co-captains against Great Britain.
“The Anglo American Padel Cup has set a new standard for how elite international padel competitions should be run. We leave Great Britain with a trophy, and more importantly our whole team leaves with new transatlantic friendships with people as passionate about padel as we are.”
Team GB Men’s Open captain, Cameron Dollimore, said: “It’s been a massive honour to lead my country in this reincarnation of the historic Britain – American sporting rivalry.
“The team got so close to a home victory, and the fact that it came down to the penultimate match speaks volumes about what the future holds for the sport in both countries and this unparalleled padel competition.
“You see the ‘team’ ethos play out in other transatlantic competitions, and this weekend I got to witness that for myself for the British demonstrating such incredible team spirit and talent in the sport I love. The Americans came with all the competitiveness we expected, and I know the closeness of the result means Team GB already has the fire in its belly to claim back the Cup next year. The battle has commenced – bring it on in the USA in 2026!”
Advertisement