The Sage
Few movements, maximum effect.
The Sage barely moves. It looks like laziness until you notice, around the middle of the match, that you've run three times as far and you're a set down. He isn't lazy: he has stopped making the movements that don't do anything.
How they play
Essential. Over the years he has stripped out everything surplus, and what's left is positional padel: he's always where the ball is going to be, so he never has to chase it. He has no spectacular shots and doesn't miss them. He knows every trajectory off the glass, every strange bounce, every situation — because he has already lived it a few hundred times.
Strengths
Reading the match. The Sage understands the match, not just the point: he knows when a pairing is about to fold, when it pays to slow things down, when an opponent is bluffing. He regularly beats players who are younger, quicker and stronger, and the lovely part is that they never quite work out how it happened.
The weak side
The body. Against a very high tempo sustained for long enough, experience isn't enough, and physical matches remain his worst ground. He can also be too conservative: some situations call for a risk, and he has learned to avoid them so well that he no longer sees them.
The ideal partner
Works best with The Socialite. One supplies the rhythm and the good humor, the other supplies the head in the moments that count. It's also the pairing that stays at the bar longest afterwards.
"Not going for that one, it's out." (it's out)
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