Nederlands
Peter Bruijsten and Bram Meijer are the first full Dutch team to compete in the World Padel Tour. On Saturday 30 April, in front of an impressive crowd, they lost their first match of the pre-qualifications round for 6-3 6-2 against the spaniards David Ortiz Dijan and Pablo Bes Ostariz.
Bruijsten and Meijer started playing padel nearly 5 years ago and were some of the first in Holland to embrace it as their “first sport”. Since then, they invest time to become better players and help develop the sport through contributing to the Nederlandse Padelbond.
Bruisjten is one of the most fanatic competitive players in the country of the tulips. In addition with his trainings with the Dutch National Team, he travels every time possible to nearby countries to compete against other high level amateur players. When consulted about his experience at the World Padel Tour, he said: “They are one level higher than us at the pre-qualifications of the WPT, but they are playable”.
Meijer embraced Padel at the early age of 16. Bondscoach Norberto Nesi scouted him in his home city, Enschede. “Young, athletic, tall, dedicated and enthusiastic about padel. Plus, almost no tennis background! He has all the rough material needed to probably
become one of the first in a breed of a special category “100% padel player”, said Nesi. In his Facebook account Meijer shared in Dutch: “Ons eerste avontuur World Padel Tour en ons lange weekend Barcelona zit er helaas al weer op. We hebben genoten, maar moesten het helaas afleggen 6-3 6-2. We zijn weer een ervaring rijken en maken ons weer op voor een nieuw avontuur op de World padel Tour”
Bruijsten and Meijer are nowadays training towards the World Cup Padel 2016 qualifications round that will be played later this year either in Switzerland or Lithuania. The World Cup Padel will be held in Lisbon, Portugal from 14th to 20th November.
