The first date of the MAPFRE League men's game ended this Sunday in Barcelona with the victory of team consisting of Pablo Carreño, Roberto Carballés, Pedro Martínez and Mario Vilella. But the biggest triumph was the return of tennis in Spain, an absolute success and without incident to regret despite the pandemic. Rigorous social distance, racket crashes instead of greetings and as many masks as people in the stands, They occupied a third of the towns on the Vall d'Hebron central track (about 1,000).
The first duel of the day measured Mario Vilella and Jaume Munar, member of the Equelite JC of Juan Carlos Ferrero the first, and of the Rafa Nadal Academy, the second. The cat took the Balearic to the water based on perseverance, since the Spaniard dominated the first leg of the match thanks to his imposing physique (despite not reaching 1.80 in height) until he ran out of gasoline. His flat strokes, more typical of the fast track, overwhelmed Jaume in the first set (6-3), but his consistency gave a radical turn to the duel in the second set. The one from Santañí was released as the timid applause that came out of the stands until the game was over, devastating: 1-6 in the second command and 5-10 in the supertiebreak. The white team was still alive.
Carreño returned to his best version
2019 was not an easy course for Pablo Carreño, who moved away from the privileged positions that he once occupied in the ATP ranking when back there September 2017 reached 10th place. But in Vall d'Hebron green shoots emerged. The man from Gijón overflowed with confidence from the start in the decisive match, showing a solid right hand and a swiftness of legs that were not having competed for almost four months. Ramos was the other side of the coin, burdened by discomfort in his hip.
With that state of enviable form, Carreño linked eight consecutive games to leave the game on track (6-1 and 2-0 above) when the rain made an appearance. Shy summer drops that did not interrupt the game when the best was yet to come. Ramos reacted by pulling ex officio from the bottom of the track, but Carreño gave the final blow to close the game to the rest and offer the tournament to his teammates. The Equelite JC was able to remove the thorn from the first duel of the day thanks to the Asturian, whose game is exciting again.
Results of the third day: (Red Team 13 – 5 White Team)
Vilella vs Munar: 6-3, 1-6 and 5-10
Carreño vs Ramos: 6-1 and 6-4