After a surprising and somewhat controversial defeat ( addressed by Lebrón on social media ) at the hands of Javier Garrido (Spain) and his partner Lucas Campagnolo (Brasil) in the round of 16 at the Miami padel open in February, the 2022 WPT season did not get off to a good start for the world number one partnership Juan ‘’the wolf’’’ lebrón (Spain) and Alejandro ‘’Ale’’ Galán (Spain) Only once before had this partnership not reached the quater finals.
However, at the Estrella Damm Reus Costa Daurada open 2022 in March,after a tough fight in the semis against Federico Chingotto (Argentina) / Juan Tello (Argentina), the duo reached the final, suffering defeat to Agustín Tapia (Argentina) and Carlos Daniel “Sanyo” Guttierez (Argentina) in straight sets.
As the season continued, they went on to reach a further 14 finals, 9 ending in victory in Alicante, Brussels, Marbella, Valladolid, Cascais, Stockholm, Menorca, Malmö and Buenos Aires, proving that when this pairing is on form, they are truly formidable.
The world numer ones suffered a minor set-back in November, when a persistent knee injury forced Galán to pull out of the last WPT OPEN event of the year in Mexico.
Follwing doctor’s orders to rest, he was fortunately able to compete in the prestigious Estrella Damm Barcelona Master Final in December at Palau Sant Jordi, where they then produced arguably some of their best padel to date, in front of record atendance figures. Here, they breezed through both quarters and semis, overcoming Franco Stupaczuk (Argentina) / Pablo Lima (Brasil) and Alejandro Ruiz (Spain) / Jerónimo ‘’MoMo’’ González (Spain) respectively, In comfortable straight set matches.
MASTER FINAL – BARCELONA 2022
The final was a different story: spectators were treated to a 3 set roller-coaster against Federico Chingotto (Argentina) / Martín Di Nenno (Argentina). At 6-4 5-4 up and with 0-40 against Chingotto’s serve, no one expected a 3rd set! After saving the 4 consecutive match points, Chingotto /Di Nenno went on to reach and win a nail-biting tie break 7-5. The number one seeds then prevailed 6-2 in the final set, thus completing yet another successful season.
Hello Padel congratulates them!
Despite many partnerships such as Stupa / Lima, Tapia / Sanyo, Di Nenno / Chingotto and Bela / Coello parting ways next season, Lebrón / Galán will once again be playing side by side.
We look to forward to seeing what they have in store for us in 2023!
Next up , Alejandra Salazar / Gemma Triay WPT 2022 recap
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