Olivian Surugiu and Victoras Popescu were crowned champions of the III International Tournament of Sardinia.

The Romanians, current world champions, defeated the Spaniards Javier Asensio and Fidelio Santiago in the final by 7-6 and 6-3 and, with this result, repeated the title obtained in 2023.

The Romanians Olivian Surugiu and Victoras Popescu reaffirmed their dominance in the Padbol world by winning the International Tournament of Sardinia for the second consecutive year. This time, they defeated the Spaniards Javier Asensio and Fidelio Santiago in the final by 7-6 and 6-3, thus claiming the first official tournament of 2024.

Regarding the tournament itself, this is the third edition of the competition (2022, 2023, and 2024), and this time it had a record participation of 20 pairs (41 players). In this sense, 8 countries from 3 different continents were present: Italy, Spain, Romania, Portugal, Germany, Austria, Argentina, and Qatar.

The teams were divided into 4 groups of 5 teams each, with the top two from each group advancing to the quarterfinals, then semifinals, and finally the final and third-place match.

The top four places were as follows:

  1. Olivian Surugiu/ Victoras Popescu (Romania)
  2. Fidelio Santiago/ Javier Asensio (Spain)
  3. Gonzalo Maidana/ Salem Al-Marri (Argentina/Qatar)
  4. Ricardo Marques/ Greg Van Dijk (Portugal)

The MVP of the tournament was the Romanian Olivian Surugiu.

Furthermore, this tournament shone not only due to the excellent organization by the Italian Padbol Federation, led by Fabio Argiolas, but also because of the excellent level of play seen during the four days of the event. Part of this was thanks to the presence of members from 6 of the top 8 pairs from the last World Cup: Romania (world champion), Portugal (3rd), Spain (4th), Argentina (5th), Qatar (7th), and Italy (8th).

It is worth noting that with this new title, Surugiu and Popescu have accumulated 20 consecutive international matches without a loss. They also maintain their world number 1 ranking and increased their lead in the world ranking over their closest followers, the Uruguayans Sebastián Sanromán and Eddy Bueno.

The summary of the tournament, including results and final standings, can be seen in this link.

The photo gallery of the tournament is in this link.

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