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Iga Swiatek links up with Daniil Medvedev as 'horrible' experience shared
Reach Daily Express | June 15, 2025 4:39 AM CST

and confessed to struggling when pairing up to battle it out against two padel professionals. The sport has taken Europe by storm in recent years and draws comparisons to tennis but on a smaller enclosed court.

However, Swiatek and Medvedev have gone a long way towards highlighting the marked differences between the two sports, with the tennis stars struggling to get to grips with certain aspects of the sport.

The duo teamed up to test themselves against Tecnifibre padel pros Joel Olivera and Matias Novillo. Swiatek and Medvedev were first put through their paces in a short game of 'teamwork and total chaos', which saw them get to grips with the technicalities of the sport in three separate rounds.

The opening round saw the pair focus on how to return serves, before the second round gave both players an understanding of the bajada - a shot which is specific to padel for when you receive the ball with a chip shot and allow it to strike the glass behind you before hitting it back.

Speaking about how the tennis stars performed early on, Olivera said: "They surprised me. Not with walls - it was horrible."

In the third round, Swiatek and Medvedev joined forces and tested themselves against the professionals, Olivera and Novillo. As expected, the match - which was a first-to-seven - saw the pro padel stars dominate proceedings.

They cruised to a 7-2 success over the tennis professionals and highlighted why there is a specific talent to succeeding in the trend-setting new sport. Speaking after the match, Medvedev laughed: "I really like the two points that we won." Swiatek added: "I think I should've let Daniil play more because I had a problem even bouncing the ball before my serve."

The four then spoke after the match about how with more time and practice, Medvedev and Swiatek could develop into more competitive players when taking to the padel court. But until then, the duo will quickly turn their attention back to pushing for titles with a tennis racquet.


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