With the first WPT event of the year underway in Abu Dhabi, we take a look at some of the new and exciting partnerships that have formed for the 2023 season. There have been quite a few changes in partnerships and some very exciting new teams that have been formed for the season, so here is a short summary of the changes and who to keep an eye on.
We recently did a poll on our Instagram account with nearly 4000 followers and we asked the question whether Lebròn and Galan would stay at No 1 this year and to our surprise, most of you think that the very exciting young partnership of Coello and Tapia are going to end up there at the end of the season. There is no doubt that one of the most exciting pair’s are the young stars, but will they be able to topple the undeniably talented and strong team of Lebròn and Galan?
Another exciting partnership is the return of Di Nenno & Stupaczuk, nicknamed “super kids” as they dominated the youth categories when they were growing up together in Argentina. They then later moved to Spain together to compete in the WPT. Di Nenno had a near fatal crash in early 2016, causing Stupaczuk to move on, but now the “super kids” are set to return after 7 years apart. ‘Stupa’ had a successful 2022 with Pablo Lima and they made five finals and won the French Padel Open. Stupaczuk has won at least one title now for the past 8 seasons. Di Nenno leaves the super talented Paquito Navarro, even though they were a stone’s throw away from being world number ones in 2022. Di Nenno and Navarro brought some thrilling and exciting games to us last year, they however decided to split after their last tournament in Santander, which they won.
Argentinians ‘Sanyo’ Gutierrez and Fernando Belasteguin are also reuniting, creating yet another formidable force on the 2023 circuit. Both Gutierrez and Belasteguin are former world number ones and will yet again try and fight their way up to the top. Between the two of them, they have won 102 WPT titles, so there is plenty of experience and winning mentality in this team and they will be ones to watch.
Paquito Navarro will join fellow Bullpadel player Juan Tello's for this season, which will see Paquito move to the right-side position, one that he is not too familiar with. Both with exceptional talent and big smashes, it will be exciting to see how they get along together.
Juan Lebrón and Alejandro Galán are still partnered again for another season. We’re still picking them to hold onto their No1 position this year, but its sure going to be a great season ahead, we can’t wait to watch it.
The official top 12 team rankings on the WPT for the 2023 season is as follows:
- Juan Lebròn and Ale Galan
- Agustin Tapia and Arturo Coello
- Fernando Belasteguin and Sanyo Guitierrez
- Paquito Navarro and Juan Tello
- Franco Stupaczuk and Martin Di Nenno
- Momo Gonzales and Alex Ruiz
- Jorge Nieto and Pablo Lima
- Javier Garrido and Fede Chingotto.
- Lucas Campagnolo and Maxi Sanchez
- Luciano Capra and Agustin Gutierrez
- Jon Sanz and Javi Leal
- Mike Yanguas and Alejandro Arroyo