USA Padel’s Senior National Championships wrapped up this weekend, and the Men’s 55+ bracket delivered exactly the drama it promised. With 15 pairs entered, the Men’s 55+ bracket was the most heavily contested division of the championships, and by the time the final ball was struck, it was an unseeded pair of former U.S. Open tennis doubles partners hoisting the trophy, defying the top seeds.
The Favorites Fall Early
Leading the seeding into the weekend was the pairing of Javier Maldonado and Gabriel Sanchez Iniesta, the No. 1 seed, who carried history into the draw with the No. 2 seed, Mehdi Alami and Claudio Lopez. The two pairs had met in a tense three-set semis at last year’s USA Padel Senior National Championships in Magnolia, Texas, with Maldonado and Sanchez Iniesta prevailing in a super tiebreak. This time, the top seeds never got the rematch.
Maldonado and Sanchez Iniesta opened in the quarterfinals against a red-hot Jeffrey Spiers and Gerardo Martinez, who had just dispatched Harry DeMott and David Amendola in the opening round. Spiers and Martinez continued their surge, knocking out the No. 1 seed in the quarterfinals to blow the top of the draw wide open.
The bottom half of the seeding chart also took hits. The No. 4 seed, Eric Zolnosky and Maurice Ruah, entered with an international pedigree of their own after competing on the U.S. men’s roster at the 2024 Pan American Senior Championships in Argentina, but couldn’t get past Ron Bobman and Argentinian padel legend Roberto Gattiker. The pair, competing on the circuit together for the first time, cruised through round one, then outlasted Zolnosky/Ruah 7-5, 6-3 in a tight quarterfinal battle.
Palmer and O’Brien Chart Their Own Path
While the top half of the draw was busy upsetting seeds, Jared Palmer, a regular on the circuit, teamed with his former US Open Tennis partner Alex O’Brien and quietly built their own run toward the final. The duo opened with a win over Hardy Manges and John Kreitler, then took down the No. 3 seed, Larry Pascal and KC Kadow, in the quarterfinals. Pascal is a U.S. international who served as flag bearer for the National Team at the FIP World Senior Championships in Alicante, Spain, and was the nation’s top-ranked player in his age bracket in 2023.
That set up a semifinal against the No. 2 seed, Alami and Lopez, who had grinded past Rob Roshkoff and Mitchell Truwit 6-1, 5-7, 6-2 to reach the final four. Palmer and O’Brien needed just two sets to get through to punch their ticket to the final.
A Final Worth the Wait
On the other side of the bracket, Spiers and Martinez kept their giant-killing run alive, sweeping past Bobman and Gattiker in the semifinal to reach their first national final of the tournament without dropping a set to a seeded pair along the way.
But the final belonged to Palmer and O’Brien. The former U.S. Open tennis doubles partners closed out the tournament in a thriller, defeating Spiers and Martinez 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 to claim the Men’s 55+ national title. It was a fitting cap to a run built on steady, unseeded consistency rather than seeding-chart pedigree.
Final Results:
Men’s 55+
Champions: Jared Palmer and Alex O’Brien
Men’s 45+
Champions: Juan Arraya and Enrique Catter
Men’s 35+
Champions: Andrea Bonfigli and Martin Miedzowicz
Women’s 55+
Champions: Sarah Padgitt and Karyn (Kobe) Kobayashi
With the top two seeds both falling before the final, the Men’s 55+ division proved once again why it’s the deepest field in the Senior National Championships. On any given weekend, seeding is only half the story.