
The Three Leaders of Male Padel Tennis Today
Meet the crème de la crème of padel tennis in the male category:
Standing on top of elite athletes for this season is Alejandro Galan Romo.
Alejandro leads with 11395 points for this season, beating hundreds of players in padel. Since going pro in 2014, he has already won 361 matches and lost 103. This seasoned backhand court player has 7 WPT Career Tournament Titles on his belt.
Alé Galán (nickname Gallant) had consistently worked his way up to the top since 2016 when he turned professional. He’s among the new generation of young players hungry for the top spot, ready to take on the old guard of experienced players with their youth, talent, and speed on the court.
At the age of 5, Ale Galán started fooling around playing padel with his sister Alba (ranked 18th) and the neighborhood kids without realizing they were playing padel.
He quickly caught on and started playing competitively at the age of 7 but claims he never really achieved much success during this time. However, all this changed when at age 18, he was awarded a sports scholarship at a prestigious Padel Academy in Madrid.
Since then, Ale Galán has never looked back as he hammered his way into the number three spot at the end of a stellar 2019 season. He is the youngest player in the top 10ranking list.
Despite his success, Alé Galán remains humble at heart, never forgetting his humble beginnings in a poor part of Madrid where family and friends are still everything. He admits, though, that his one big fear on the court is facing a big lob played by the opponent!
Tied for #1 is Romo’s ferocious partner Juan Lebron Chincoa.
Juan Lebron has 18 consecutive wins in his belt. He is also a formidable seasoned athlete. He started going pro in 2013 and has won 223 matches so far with only 119 losses. This padel beast is only 26 years old and has so much more to show.
Juan Lebrón, the new kid on the “court,” showed that he is a force to be reckoned with early in his career. Lebrón stood out as a junior, winning the Spanish Junior Championships title several times.
Lebrón, nicknamed “Wolf,” started his professional career in 2016, and quickly became a crowd favorite, not only for his exceptional talent but also for his handsome looks.
His meteoric rise to the top culminated in an explosive 2019 season, which saw him make history when he became the first Spanish-born WPT number one player in Sao Paulo in Brazil, previously held by Latin America players since 2013!
Lebrón ended the season by joining number one paired with Paquito Navarro on the WPT rankings, again making history by becoming the first Spanish player ever to take the top position on the rankings list.
Fernando Belasteguin closely gunning in third place.
Belasteguin, better known as “Bela” for short, is the most successful and celebrated player on the WPT circuit to date, with a record 16 consecutive years as the number 1 ranked player in the world, earning him the nickname, “Messi Pedal,” meaning “unbeatable/ unstoppable.”
Bela first stepped onto the padel court in Pehuajó, Buenos Aires, with only the neighbor’s chickens to watch him play as a youngster. Little did he know back then that a few years later, he would become a padel sensation whose presence on the court would fill up the stands with hundreds of devoted fans cheering him on.
In the end, the boy who loved football ended up choosing padel and was chosen by padel. He made history when at age 22, he became the youngest number 1 player in the world, a title he would hold for 16 years and 8 months, having never been achieved before or since.
Bela made his debut on the professional circuit in 1995 at age 15, and 5 years later, he won Argentina’s Best Player award. In 2001 he paired up with Spanish legend Juan Martín Diaz. They remained the number 1 couple for 14 consecutive years, holding the unbeatable record for 1 year and 9 months, making them the most successful couple in padel history and the “kings of the court.”
By the end of 2015, teamed with Brazilian sensation Pablo Lima, Bela continued reigning the circuit as the “king of the court,” also referred to as the “Master.” Sadly, his reign was cut short by nagging injuries, forcing him into retirement by 2018.
Despite his success on the court, Bela remains humble at heart. When asked whether he has his many medals and trophies on display at home, he said: “My wife (a dentist) doesn’t get a medal to show off every time she’s done four implants.”
Besides, he doesn’t want his kids to have their father’s success on the padel court weigh them down growing up. As far as he is concerned, he is their father and not the padel champion. That’s all that counts.
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