For Japanese padel participant Kotomi Ozawa, the phrase “delivering beneath stress” holds a deeper significance. The 26-year-old, who’s partnering finance professional Elisabeth Nogueras Lorenz, confronted comparatively little stress through the ladies’s semifinals of the FIP Promotion India Padel Open held at Bennett College in Noida on Saturday. They simply defeated Indians Sharmada Balu and Prerana Prathap 6-1, 6-2. They may face Spaniards Ainize Santamaria Landa and Aitana Solan Domenech for the ladies’s title on Sunday.
Earlier than Ozawa devoted herself to padel full time 5 years in the past, she labored as an obstetric aide at Keio College Hospital in Tokyo. “It’s not solely about facilitating beginning. We take care of each infants and moms throughout and after being pregnant. I can’t even rely how many individuals I’ve assisted,” she says with a beaming smile.
Like many padel gamers, Ozawa has a background in tennis. Padel, which is a mixture of squash and tennis, is performed on a a lot smaller court docket and doesn’t contain the quantity of bodily rigour required in tennis, making it standard at membership stage.
When Ozawa transitioned from tennis to padel, she needed to modify her recreation and unlearn sure features of tennis. “Due to muscle reminiscence, you must unlearn after which study once more. Initially, it was troublesome. I needed to adapt to the corners and the partitions, which took time,” she explains.
Along with technical changes, Ozawa famous that the game requires a change in tactical strategy. “The court docket is smaller than in tennis, so we’re nearer to one another. This enables us to speak successfully, whether or not we’re enjoying with newbies or professionals, which I get pleasure from. It’s not simply concerning the first ball; we have to decelerate and strategise on advance to the web, focusing extra on offence than defence,” Ozawa elaborates.
Her Spanish associate, Lorenz, additionally performed newbie tennis earlier than switching to padel in 2014. With a level in enterprise administration and economics, she traded her company finance job for her ardour for the game. “I left my finance job. It was a distinct life, however that is higher,” Lorenz shares.
*Outcomes: Semifinals (Centre Court docket)
*Girls’s:**
– Ainize Santamaria Landa & Aitana Solan Domenech (Spain) defeated Tulsi Mehta (India) & Banafsheh Moradi Shahpar (Iran) 6-0, 6-0.
– Kotomi Ozawa (Japan) & Elisabeth Nogueras Lorenz (Spain) defeated Sharmada Balu & Prerana Prathap (India): 6-1, 6-2.
*Males’s:
– Pol Alsina & Edu Altimires Ros (Spain) defeated Arya Roghani (Iran) & Hami Golestan (Sweden) 6-4, 6-1
– Arthur Hugounenq & Thomas Seux (France) defeated Chaitanya Shah & Vikram Shah (India) 6-0, 6-2