Team ‘Uncle Saeed’ enter NAS Padel Championship final

Team ‘Uncle Saeed’, comprising Sheikh Saeed Bin Maktoum Bin Juma Al Maktoum and Abdulrazak Ahmed, are through to the Men’s Bronze Category final of the Nad Al Sheba Sports Tournament’s Padel Championship, where they meet Humaid Ghanem Al Hajeri and Farhan Hudda for the title on April 26.

Sheikh Saeed and Ahmed, who opened their campaign with a tough 6-4, 3-6, 7-5 win over Butii Al Suwaidi and Mohammed Al Shamsi, and then edged Luis Cobo and Salvador Medina 6-3, 7-6 in the quarter-finals, came bolting out of the blocks in the semifinals on Tuesday night, blanking Jordi Perpina and Ignacio Barroso in the opening set before booking their place in the final with a 6-0, 6-3 win.

Earlier in the first semis, Hajeri and Hudda had a much tougher time against Thomas Benaroya and Hazem Shish, but after taking the first set in a tie-break, they progressed with a 7-6, 6-4 win.

There was a nail-biting tussle in the first semi-final of the Women’s Bronze Category as well, with the match heading into the third-set where Josipa Bek and Selma Babic prevailed for a 6-4, 7-5, 6-4 win over Jessica Palma and Luli Guerrero.

Bek and Babic now await the winner of the second semi-final between Karina Simeonova Lozova and Alessa Belbes, and Hafsah Sani and Khadeejah Sani. The final of the Women’s Bronze Category will take place on April 25.

There were two Golden Category quarterfinals played on Tuesday night, and they were a lot simpler affairs with, first, Javier Lopez Garcia and Alexander Farquharson cruising to a 6-1, 6-0 win over Marc Ruiviejo Cirera and Victor Arruiz, before Saeed Al Marri and Claudio Bobadilla joined them in the last-four with a 6-2, 6-1 win over Cristian Donnet and Andre Delmar.

The 75km NAS Cycling Championship, meanwhile, will take place this weekend across three nights – Thursday, Friday and Saturday – with hundreds of participants competing in in six different categories for a total prize purse of Dhs360,000.

The Open Men’s category race will take place on Thursday, while Friday night will see competitors from four different categories – Open Women, Emirati Amateur Women, and People of Determination on Road Bicycles and People of Determination on Hand Bicycles – in action. Emirati Amateur Men, meanwhile, will compete on the third night.

All races will start from Falcon and Heritage Sports Centre in Nad Al Sheba, with the first group being flagged off at 10pm and the others following in batches, with a maximum interval of two minutes between each batch.

Meydan Street will be closed from 9pm to 12:15am on all three nights for the cycle race.

There are exciting prizes on offer in each of the categories, with the men’s and women’s champions in the Open category getting Dhs18,000 each. The runners-up will receive Dhs12,000 each and third-place will be worth Dhs9,600, while those finishing between 4th to 9th will take home Dhs3,600 each.

In the Emirati Amateur category for Men and Women, there will be a total prize purse of Dhs180,000 for the Top 9 with the two winners taking home AED 26,400 each. Second place will be worth Dhs20,400 each, while those finishing third will take home cheques of Dhs14,400 each. There will be prizes for fourth to ninth finish as well, with each of them taking home Dhs4,800.

In the two People of Determination categories – Road Bicycles and Hand Bicycles – there is a total of Dhs57,600 on offer for the top three with the two winners receiving a cheque of Dhs12,000 each, the runners-up getting Dhs9,600 each and third-place receiving Dhs7,200 each.