Gemma Triay Pons is a professional padel player born in Menorca (Spain) on June 28, 1992. She is currently number 1 in the World Padel Tour ranking, thanks to her tactical and technical skills, but above all for her ability to remain calm and enjoy the game even in the moments when it seems that all is lost.
From tennis to paddle tennis
Gemma started in the world of sports playing tennis when she was 14 years old. For a long time she trained very hard in a high performance center, dedicating from 5 to 6 hours a day to the practice of this sport until one day she got injured, just before making the selectivity. A fact that undoubtedly discouraged her and prompted her to quit tennis in 2010, at the age of 19.
After the injury, Triay moved to Barcelona to study and would stay away from the sport for a while. But, it was at the university, given her need to practice some sporting activity, that she had her first encounter with padel and from then on she could not detach herself from the sport.
She started playing in a tournament in which she was victorious and which led her to win the university championship of Catalonia and then the championship of Spain. It was at that moment when she decided to take paddle tennis more seriously and looked for a club to train.
She starts her professional career
In 2013 with 21 years old, Gemma plays in the Catalan circuit and that same year she also played 5 World Padel Tour events, in which she passed the qualifiers. At the end of that same year, Paula Eyheraguibel was surprised by the potential that this player had for padel and both started a project.
With the Spanish national padel team she has been World and European champion, in fact, in 2017 she was considered the second best player of the WPT circuit next to Lucia Sainz.
In the coming years she would continue to focus on improving her game until in 2020 she ends up becoming the no.1, closing her stage as Sainz’s partner.
Currently, the player from Menorca is paired on court with Alejandra Salazar, with whom she is already champion of the WPT and are number 1 in the ranking as a couple.
Evolution in the World Padel Tour
After dabbling in the World Padel Tour in the company of Paula Eyheraguybel, in 2016, Gemma started a sports project with LucĂa Sainz, who would modify her position from backhand to drive to pair up on court with the player from Alayor. It was with LucĂa that she would reap her first successes as a professional, precisely one year later, winning her first two titles.
In 2018, she already accumulated four titles alongside Sainz and would defend the women’s title. In the following season, both would start as the number 1 couple of the WPT ranking. However, injuries diminished their presence on the court, allowing them to only achieve one award: The Santander WOPEN.
By 2020, Triay and Sainz were the most physical and dominant duo on the circuit, winning 5 times in 11 games played. In addition, they won a Master’s title to close the year with style.
Finally, in 2021, together with Ale Salazar, she would reach the only achievement she was missing as a professional padel player: to position herself as number 1 in the ranking alone. For the first time in her career, Gemma would arrive at the Cupra Vigo Open 2021 as the maximum reference of women’s padel in the world.
Skills
If we have to choose the three elements that helped Triay to become the best solo padel player, we have to highlight her character, competitiveness and mental strength. Of course, we must also highlight her maturity on the court, which has allowed her to reduce her margin of error in every game.
The Menorcan player is technically brilliant and has a privileged physical capacity, however, she herself prioritizes the mental strength that she must have to be able to succeed in this sport.
For Gemma, staying calm, enjoying the game and trusting herself as much as her partner, are the main factors that have made the difference. She has assured that thanks to this, today she makes fewer unforced errors in the key moments of each game.
Curiosities
- Triay loves puzzles and board games. He also enjoys going to the cinema and playing video games in his spare time.
- The bandage she usually wears is an outfit she wears to avoid re-injury.
- Gemma is the person in charge of her social networks. She likes to feel the support she receives from her followers and to repay all that love by responding to them herself.
- She declares herself a fan of the game of professional padel player Daniel Sanyo Gutiérrez.