{"id":14413,"date":"2026-08-28T22:07:39","date_gmt":"2026-08-28T20:07:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/padelinformacion.com\/portugal-wins-gold-in-the-mixed-event-at-taranto-2026\/"},"modified":"2026-08-28T22:07:39","modified_gmt":"2026-08-28T20:07:39","slug":"portugal-wins-gold-in-the-mixed-event-at-taranto-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/padelinformacion.com\/en\/portugal-wins-gold-in-the-mixed-event-at-taranto-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Portugal wins gold in the mixed event at Taranto 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cI\u2019m going to give it my all this afternoon because I have to win a gold medal.\u201d Sofia Ara\u00fajo had said this a few hours earlier to the Portuguese Padel Federation (FPP), with the women\u2019s bronze medal still slipping through her fingers. It wasn\u2019t a promise; it was a warning. And that afternoon, she delivered. The Portuguese pair, siblings Sofia <\/a>and Peu Ara\u00fajo<\/a>,<\/strong> won the gold medal in the mixed doubles final <\/strong>at the 20th Mediterranean Games<\/a> <\/strong>on Friday 28 August, after defeating the Italians Giulia Dal Pozzo<\/strong> <\/a>and Marco Cassetta<\/strong> <\/a>in two sets (6-2, 3-6 <\/strong>and 6-3<\/strong>). <\/span><\/p>\n

The final got off to a flying start for Portugal. Sof\u00eda and Peu Ara\u00fajo played at a good pace, found the gaps and forced one break point after another, eventually taking the first set 6\u20132. In the second set, although the start was evenly matched, a moment of loss of concentration whilst Peu Ara\u00fajo was serving in the sixth game allowed the Italians to break the Portuguese pair\u2019s serve and take the lead (4\u20132). With their lead secured and buoyed by a passionate crowd, Cassetta and Dal Pozzo simply had to hold serve to take the match into a decisive third set. <\/span><\/p>\n

Following the mandatory 10-minute heat break, Portugal returned determined to recapture the form they had shown in the first set. By the second game, they had already broken serve and taken a 2-0 lead. However, Italy did not give up and reacted immediately with a break back. In the fifth game, history repeated itself, but in reverse: Italy managed to break Peu Ara\u00fajo\u2019s serve and, straight away, the Portuguese broke Dal Pozzo\u2019s serve to level the score at 3\u20133. In the eighth game came the decisive blow: a break by the Ara\u00fajos to make it 5\u20133. On their serve, Portugal didn\u2019t falter; 6\u20133, the match was over, and Portugal secured their first mixed padel gold medal at the Mediterranean Games. <\/span><\/p>\n

After their victory, Sofia and Peu Ara\u00fajo shared the pride of representing their country and, at the same time, doing so together as siblings. \u201cThis victory is a source of immense pride, <\/strong>and I don\u2019t think there could have been anyone better to have by my side than my brother,\u201d Sofia told the Portuguese Olympic Committee. <\/span><\/p>\n

As for the match, Peu admitted that \u201cit wasn\u2019t easy; we already knew it was going to be a tough match.<\/strong> We won the first set quite comfortably, but then we let our intensity drop a little and that\u2019s when things got tricky. Whether we like it or not, the crowd also has an influence. In the third set, I let my intensity drop again, but we managed to hang on and achieve our goal, so I\u2019m very happy.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

In the same vein, Sofia emphasised what ultimately made the difference when their strength began to wane: the bond between the two of them. \u201cIn the third set, I think it was our bond that made us win<\/strong>, because we were very tired; I was very tired, both physically and mentally. When I started to struggle physically, Peu helped me; then he started to struggle a bit and I had to help him. So I think our bond was unique. And the gold is ours!\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

From this Friday, both players have etched their names into the history of Portuguese padel and that of the Mediterranean Games, having won the first mixed doubles gold medal <\/strong>in the first edition in which padel has officially formed part of the competition programme.<\/strong> <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sofia Ara\u00fajo and Peu Ara\u00fajo defeated the Italian pair Giulia Dal Pozzo and Marco Cassetta 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 in the mixed doubles final of the 20th Mediterranean Games<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14406,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[158],"tags":[],"clasificacion":[],"pais":[],"tipo-de-torneo":[],"tipo-de-competicion":[173],"class_list":["post-14413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-brief-news","tipo-de-competicion-mediterranean-games"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/padelinformacion.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/padelinformacion.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/padelinformacion.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/padelinformacion.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/padelinformacion.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14413"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/padelinformacion.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14413\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/padelinformacion.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/padelinformacion.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/padelinformacion.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/padelinformacion.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14413"},{"taxonomy":"clasificacion","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/padelinformacion.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/clasificacion?post=14413"},{"taxonomy":"pais","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/padelinformacion.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pais?post=14413"},{"taxonomy":"tipo-de-torneo","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/padelinformacion.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tipo-de-torneo?post=14413"},{"taxonomy":"tipo-de-competicion","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/padelinformacion.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tipo-de-competicion?post=14413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}