This is the confrontation of this World Cup: the men's quarter-final between France and Italy. This is even the first explosive meeting of these 2024 World Padel Championships in Qatar.

As Gustavo Spector, the former captain of the Italian men's team, said in 2021 in Marbella: "A Euro without the traditional France-Italy is not really a Euro." Well, for a Padel World Cup, it's the same.

For several years, theItaly and France are aiming for the same places and display relatively equivalent levels, with performances sometimes swinging from one side to the other depending on the year.

In 2024, the advantage lies with Italy, which recently won a fierce duel against France in the European Padel Championships in Sardinia, three months ago. Of course, France and Italy would have preferred to meet for a third place, but it will finally be for a semi-final that they face each other from the quarter-finals of this World Cup.

France, seeking revenge, has in its ranks all the ingredients to surprise and beat Italy. It was already very close to doing so last July.

The duo Blanqué / Leygue had then delivered a perfect match to defeat Patiniotis/Graziotti. Behind, France had lost the other two matches, both in three sets, notably this famous match 2 where the formidable Facundo Dominguez had made a fool of himself Adrien Maigret et Johan Bergeron.

Today, the team has evolved, with new blood. As always, we can count on the leaders of the French team to take things in hand. On paper, Italy remains the favorite against France. The pressure is therefore on the side of the second European nation. As the fourth European nation, France will be able to rely on the experience of its captain, Pablo Ayma, to establish the best strategy and choose the most competitive pairs for this duel.

Italy: 864

  • Aris Patiniotis (53)
  • Facundo Dominguez (60)
  • Simone Cremona (104)
  • Frame Cassetta (105)
  • Lorenzo DiGiovanni (125)
  • Giulio Grazzioti (114)
  • Riccardo Sinicropi (141)
  • Michael Bruno (162)

France : 1271

  • Thomas Leygue (102)
  • Bastien Blanqué (121)
  • Dylan Guichard (120)
  • Johan Bergeron (137)
  • Manuel Vives (148)
  • Maxime Joris (171)
  • Thomas Vanbauce (178)
  • Timeo Fonteny (294)

To fully understand this quarter-final clash, we need to analyze the team rankings in this World Cup. It is the 3rd world nation in terms of team weight, Italy, against the 4th world nation, France. Only 400 places separate the two nations, with a slight advantage for Italy, which has two players in the world top 100, Aris Patiniotis and Facundo Dominguez. These two players are the most formidable assets of the Blue Team but are also well known to the French. Thomas Leygue, for example, was Aris Patiniotis' partner during the Bordeaux P2 last June. As for Facundo, he played alongside the former member of the French team, Jérémy Scatena. It is certain that the former French number 1 will be able to advise the French team before this explosive confrontation.

italy team 2024 padel world
france team 2024 qatar padel world

Finally, we must take into account the famous chance in the composition and positioning of the pairs. Tonight, Pablo Ayma for France and Marcella Ferrari for Italy will probably think long and hard about their strategies and think carefully about which teams to line up for tomorrow's quarter-final. In reality, the confrontation starts right now.

Franck Binisti

Franck Binisti discovered padel at the Club des Pyramides in 2009 in the Paris region. Since then, padel has been part of his life. You often see him touring France to cover major French padel events.

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