Stupaczuk and Sanz arrived in good form after a runner-up run in Lyon. They earned their place in the final by beating Ale Galán and Fernando Chingotto in the semifinals. Coello and Tapia had already seen off Coki Nieto and Mike Yanguas at that stage. In the final, the world No. 1s won in straight sets and Stupaczuk and Sanz could not turn the match around.

The women's final went the way of Ari Sánchez and Andrea Ustero, who beat Paula Josemaría and Bea González 6-4, 6-4. It is their fourth title of the season and their second in a row after the Paris Major.

The route mattered as much as the score. Sánchez and Ustero beat the No. 1 seeds, Gemma Triay and Delfina Brea, in the semifinals, then the No. 2 seeds in the final. Beating the top two seeds in the same week is the kind of run that rewrites a seeding chart.

It was also a milestone for Sánchez, who played the 100th final of her career.

Josemaría and González, the No. 2 seeds, stay in the picture, but the race for the No. 2 spot among women's pairs now looks like a real three-way contest.

Away from the Rotterdam spotlight, the CUPRA FIP Tour also crowned champions in Perugia. At the FIP Gold Mediolanum Padel Cup, Juanlu Esbrí and Íñigo Jofre claimed their first title together, beating Javi Barahona and Maxi Sánchez Blasco in a final that ran past two and a half hours and was settled by three tie-breaks (7-6, 6-7, 7-6); they had knocked out Sanyo Gutiérrez and Álex Chozas in the semifinals. In the women's draw, top seeds Verónica Virseda and Martina Fassio delivered on the prediction with a 6-3, 6-3 win over Raquel Eugenio and Jimena Velasco. Esbrí and Jofre are already in Düsseldorf, entering at the round of 32.

Düsseldorf starts this week, and Coello and Tapia head there as the pair everyone must solve. Sánchez and Ustero will have a target on their backs for the first time.

Source: Padel FIP · FIP Gold Perugia

• Stupaczuk: "I needed to enjoy it again." He ended a six-month partnership with Mike Yanguas after London and joined Jon Sanz. He says he had stopped enjoying his padel. He changed fitness coach and now has Sanz's coach on the bench, with Diego Pozzoni still working with the pair during the week. (MARCA)
• Five new men's pairs debut in Düsseldorf. Pol Hernández and Manuel Castaño, Guillermo Collado and Enrique Goenaga, Íñigo Jofre and Juanlu Esbrí, Javi Garrido and Juan Ignacio De Pascual, and Lucas Bergamini and Jairo Bautista all start together. Garrido and Bergamini split after Paris, so the mid-table is now a game of musical chairs. (Mundipadel)
• Nike looks beyond Tapia. The brand has reportedly opened early talks with representatives of Delfina Brea, Martina Calvo and Andrea Ustero. Nothing is signed, and Brea is tightly tied to Bullpadel. (Padel Magazine SE)
• Miton buys half of Czech app Ace. The investment group struck a multi-million-crown deal, and its Tomáš Hodboč moves in full time to scale Ace abroad. Spain's Playtomic is the named rival, and booking software is where the real money sits. (Dealroom)
• Wembley padel club closes. The flagship Social Sports Society site has shut, and the operator has filed notice of intention to appoint administrators. A leading UK operator is reportedly preparing an offer. (The Padel Paper)

Men's, CUPRA Rotterdam P2

• Final: Coello / Tapia def. Stupaczuk / Sanz 6-3, 6-2
• Semifinals: Stupaczuk / Sanz def. Galán / Chingotto; Coello / Tapia def. Nieto / Yanguas

Women's, CUPRA Rotterdam P2

• Final: Sánchez / Ustero def. Josemaría / González 6-4, 6-4
• Semifinals: Sánchez / Ustero def. Triay / Brea (No. 1 seeds)

FIP Platinum Lyon

• Men's: Fran Guerrero / Javi Leal def. Stupaczuk / Sanz 4-6, 6-4, 6-1
• Women's: Bea Caldera / Carmen Goenaga def. Martina Fassio / Águeda Pérez 6-1, 6-3

• CUPRA Germany Premier Padel P2, Düsseldorf (Oct 4-11): Indoors at CASTELLO Düsseldorf, with 600 ranking points to the winners. The men's main draw starts Tuesday, top seeds enter Thursday, and the final weekend (Oct 10-11) is sold out.
• Seeding math: Stupaczuk and Sanz are the No. 4 seeds, 39 points ahead of Martín Di Nenno and Paquito Navarro (11,346 to 11,307). That projects a quarterfinal between the two pairs.
• Absence: Germany's No. 1, Victoria Kurz, misses her home event because of a clash with mandatory qualifying.
• Then Milan: Oysho Milano Premier Padel P1, Oct 12-18, worth 1,000 points.

Rotterdam's prize ladder is steep. Each champion took home €12,750 and each finalist €7,500. Semifinalists earned €4,125 each, and a round-of-32 exit paid €1,172. The total pool was €264,534. That spread from €12,750 at the top down to €1,172 is the whole story of a P2 week, which is why the early rounds matter more than they look.

Source: MARCA

Andrea Ustero

Ustero is the world No. 7 and, at 19, one of the youngest players inside the women's top ten. This is her first season alongside Ari Sánchez, and the pair has won four titles, including the Paris Major and now Rotterdam, back to back.

The Rotterdam run was the proof. Ustero and Sánchez beat the No. 1 seeds in the semifinals and the No. 2 seeds in the final without dropping a set in the decider.

Her name is also travelling beyond the court. Nike has reportedly sounded out her representatives, alongside Delfina Brea and Martina Calvo. Nothing is signed, but it says where the market sees her heading. Watch how she handles the target on her back in Düsseldorf.

Coello and Tapia are turning the men's tour into a one-team league, and Premier Padel should be worried. Ten titles before mid-October is a gap, not a streak. The women's side tells the better story, with five different title-winning pairs in 2026 and a champion who had to beat two top seeds in one week. Premier Padel needs the men's draw to produce that kind of doubt. A final everyone can predict will not sell out a weekend twice. Agree? Hit reply.

10 — Titles won by Arturo Coello and Agustín Tapia in 2026, and it is only the first week of October. It is their 41st together in the Premier Padel era, and Düsseldorf is next.

Spain has no official Técnico Deportivo title for padel yet. You qualify through federative Nivel I (Monitor), Nivel II (Entrenador) and Nivel III courses under the periodo transitorio. Nivel I takes 285 hours and costs roughly 790-895 € by region. Enrolment needs a licencia federativa; coaching in official competitions needs a licencia de técnico.

Last updated: October 2026 · Prices and availability verified at time of writing.

What qualifications exist in Spain

RD 1363/2007 sets the official system: grado medio gives Técnico Deportivo, grado superior Técnico Deportivo Superior, both valid across Spain. The Consejo Superior de Deportes (CSD) list has athletics, basketball, judo and sailing. It does not list padel, a modality "respecto de la cual no se ha desarrollado y regulado el correspondiente título de enseñanza deportiva".

The federations fill the gap under the periodo transitorio of RD 1363/2007. A 2011 resolution set the plan formativo: three levels, each with a bloque común, bloque específico and período de prácticas. Nivel I (Monitor) introduces beginners, Nivel II (Entrenador) directs training toward competition, and Nivel III (Entrenador/Director) is the top level.

The diplomas should gain recognition once a padel royal decree exists. We found none in the CSD list or the BOE as of October 2026, though a very recent publication could be missing. FExpadel, the Extremadura federation, says the federative qualification becomes mandatory for professional teaching only after that decree creates the title.

Who delivers the courses

The Federación Española de Pádel (FEP) and regional federations deliver the courses (padelfederacion.es; portal formacionfep.es). An authorised education centre teaches the official-status bloque común.

• Madrid (FMP): Nivel I, bloque común through UFEDEMA.
• Andalucía (FAP): Niveles I-III; launched Spain's first Nivel III course in July 2023.
• Comunitat Valenciana (FPCV): Niveles I-III, with Escola de l'Esport; some courses depend on recognition by the Generalitat.
• Euskadi (FVP-EPF): Niveles I-II, bloque común through Kirolene.
• Extremadura (FExpadel): Niveles I-II, bloque común through CEXFOD.
• Cataluña (FCP): federative technical courses, listed as Tècnic d'Esports Nivell 1.

The FEP and ANTEP warned in February 2024 that private academies sell certificates. Only the FEP and regional federations following the CSD plan issue recognised diplomas.

Entry requirements

Nivel I (Monitor): age 16; Graduado en ESO or equivalent (Bachiller also qualifies); a licencia federativa at enrolment; and a playing-level test: forehand and backhand, volleys, salida de pared, remate and bandeja. Without the ESO, the Prueba de Madurez applies, for those 18 or older. Some regions ask for a medical certificate for the bloque común.

Nivel II (Entrenador): ESO or equivalent, the official Nivel I, and a licencia federativa at enrolment. FExpadel has no access test. The FAP says old "Monitor Nacional", "monitor regional" and post-2002 "Entrenador Nacional" diplomas do not count as Nivel I.

Nivel III: Bachillerato or equivalent, plus Nivel II. Some centres weigh your CV and playing ranking. Some university and FP titles exempt you from parts of the bloque común.

Duration, format and cost

The bloque común is usually online; the bloque específico is in person or semipresencial. Prácticas happen in federated clubs with an accredited tutor; in Euskadi, 300 documented teaching hours exempt you. Courses have several windows a year and 20-30 places.

Costs vary by region; none is a national price.

• Nivel I: Extremadura 790 €. Madrid 825 € (625 € reduced). Castilla-La Mancha 825 €. Andalucía 895 € (695 € for FAP-titled applicants). Euskadi 790 € plus 80,64 € for the bloque común. Comunitat Valenciana 790 € plus 67,66 €.
• Nivel II: Euskadi 1.450 € plus 180,68 € for the bloque común.
• Nivel III: 1.960,30 € for the 2024 FEP-FPCV course; a Valencian booking model works out near 1.850 €.

Extra fees: the access test costs 30-50 € (not refundable if you fail). Diploma issuance is 50 € in Extremadura. The annual technical licence is about 21-27 € in Madrid.

What you can do with it

A federative Nivel I lets you teach beginners and minors, with national validity as "Entrenador Deportivo Nivel I (Monitor Nacional)". Nivel II and III add competition training.

For official competitions, the FAP Normativa Técnica 2025 requires a recognised titulación and a licencia de técnico in force. It also requires registration in the Registro Nacional de Técnicos de Pádel (RNTP), kept by the FEP. Only registered técnicos with a valid licence may give instructions where that figure is allowed.

Outside competition, it depends on the region. Madrid, Cataluña, Euskadi, Comunitat Valenciana, Castilla y León, Extremadura, Murcia, Navarra and La Rioja have laws requiring the relevant title. Andalucía, Aragón, Asturias, Baleares, Canarias, Cantabria, Castilla-La Mancha and Galicia have none, per ESHI.

• Euskadi (since 1 January 2026): anyone teaching or doing technical work in padel, volunteers included, needs the official Técnico Nivel I, II or III title and a place in the Registro de Profesionales or the Censo de Voluntarios.
• Madrid (Ley 6/2016): professional monitors and entrenadores need the titulación and a comunicación previa, plus violence-prevention training for work with children. The window for habilitación by experience closed on 6 December 2024.
• Cataluña (Ley 3/2008): you must be entered in the ROPEC; periodo transitorio federative titles are valid.
• Comunitat Valenciana (Ley 2/2022): professional work requires official titles or diplomas; federative certificates have temporary equivalences with a five-year transition.

The legal framework

Ley 39/2022 del Deporte has applied since 1 January 2023, replacing Ley 10/1990. Under article 49, the licence for official state and international competitions is a habilitating administrative act. It ordered the Government to bring a state law on sports professions within six months. That deadline passed long ago; as of March 2026 it was still an anteproyecto, so regional rules govern daily practice.

RD 1363/2007 remains the general framework. In June 2026, RD 534/2026 and RD 535/2026 updated the common block of existing Técnico Deportivo titles, but not for padel. Also relevant: a March 2025 FEP statute in the BOE lists its role in coach training and licences. The International Padel Federation (FIP) made a coach licence mandatory for its circuits in 2025-2026.

Coaches from abroad

The Euskadi federation (FVP) says a Spanish federative diploma is recognised in other EU countries only after convalidation there. To bring a foreign qualification into Spain, apply for homologación or convalidación at the Ministerio de Educación, FP y Deportes. You need legalised documents, an official translation, an academic certificate, proof of practicum and the tasa 079.

FIP Academy runs its own levels, whose certificates grant the FIP coaching licence that FIP competitions require. Prices exclude tax. Level 0 is online, 15 hours, 350 €. Level 1 is blended, 100 hours, 850 €. Level 2 is mostly in person, 200 hours, 1.500 €. Level 3 costs 2.500 €.

How to start, step by step

1. Open your regional federation's training page; the FEP lists courses at padelfederacion.es/Formacion_Calendario.
2. Get or renew your licencia federativa, and check your academic requirement (ESO for Nivel I, Bachillerato for Nivel III).
3. Register for the Nivel I access test and pay the 30-50 € fee.
4. Complete the bloque específico, bloque común and período de prácticas.
5. Request your licencia de técnico and RNTP entry to coach in competitions.
6. Check your region's rules before charging for lessons.

Courses open in spring and autumn. Places go by pre-inscription order, so apply early.

Sources

• BOE: Resolución de 26 de octubre de 2011, plan formativo de pádel
• BOE: RD 1363/2007
• BOE: Ley 39/2022 del Deporte
• Consejo Superior de Deportes: títulos y currículos
• Federación Española de Pádel: formación
• FExpadel: cursos de formación 2026
• FIP Academy: coaching
• ESHI: regulación de las profesiones del deporte

Coaches Juanjo Gutiérrez (men) and Carolina Navarro (women) unveiled the 16-player squad for the FIP World Padel Championships in Doha (Nov 2–7). Two decisions dominated the conversation.

Men's squad: 20-year-old Aimar Goñi is in, a World No. 32 who partners Edu Alonso in his first full season on tour and plays with an aggressive overhead and no fear of the glass. Out go Fran Guerrero (#13) and Momo González (#14), both in the form of their careers.

Women's squad: Marta Ortega and 18-year-old Martina Calvo are in, while Alejandra Salazar is out. Salazar has seven world titles, turns 40 this year and retires at year-end.

The full squads, by position.

Men's revés: Alejandro Galán, Paquito Navarro, Coki Nieto, Aimar Goñi.

Men's derecha: Arturo Coello, Juan Lebrón, Mike Yanguas, Jon Sanz.

Women's revés: Gemma Triay, Ari Sánchez, Bea González, Martina Calvo.

Women's derecha: Paula Josemaría, Claudia Fernández, Andrea Ustero, Marta Ortega.

Four men from the 12-player pre-list miss out: Fran Guerrero, Javi Leal, Momo González and Pol Hernández. Among the women, Salazar is joined on the outside by Tamara Icardo, Marina Guinart and Alejandra Alonso.

"Leaving Alejandra Salazar out was very hard emotionally," Navarro said. She would have picked Ortega even if Salazar were not retiring, citing the fast Doha courts. Ortega's recent form includes five match points saved with Sofía Araújo in Paris.

Spain staged the announcement at CUPRA City Garage in Madrid, with Spain's football world champions Ferran Torres and Fabián Ruiz as guest presenters.

Carolina Navarro saw the brief clearly: fast indoor glass, counter-attacking rallies, a squad built for speed over seniority. Spain have not won the men's world title since Doha 2021. The women are defending champions and chasing a tenth.

Then Fran Guerrero and Javi Leal walked onto a court in Lyon.

Sunday's FIP Platinum final was more than a result. Guerrero and Leal, fresh from their omission, lined up against top seeds Franco Stupaczuk and Jon Sanz, the man who took Guerrero's spot in Doha. They lost the opening set 4-6, then came back to win 6-4, 6-1.

It was their second Platinum title of 2026 and their fourth final of the year, and the scoreline needs no commentary.

Bea Caldera and Carmen Goenaga completed a dominant week on the women's side. They took the Lyon title without dropping a single set all week, beating Martina Fassio and Águeda Pérez 6-1 6-3 in the final.

Spain's squad is set for Doha, which starts November 2, and between now and then Guerrero and Leal will keep making the case they made on Sunday in Lyon.

Sources: MARCA, Padel FIP, Tennis Tonic

• American padel surged 61.6% to 1,110 courts across 38 states. Misitrano Consulting's second annual US Padel Report, released September 24, counts 296 facilities and 460,000 active players nationwide. Peak indoor pricing holds at $100/hour; demand is organic, and the sport is no longer a coastal curiosity. (Athletech News)

• Premier Padel returns at Ahoy Rotterdam with a loaded draw. Arturo Coello and Agustín Tapia headline the top half; Franco Chingotto and Alejandro Galán anchor the opposite side. Paquito Navarro and Martín Di Nenno arrive as the No. 4 seeds, clear of both top pairs until at least a semifinal. (Tennis Tonic)

• The Race to Barcelona has become a seven-tournament sprint. Coello and Tapia lead Galán and Chingotto by 1,270 points, but must defend 9,660 from their dominant late-2025 run. Rotterdam, Düsseldorf, Milan, Kuwait, Dubai, Mexico and the Finals remain; Chingalán have a real mathematical path to World No. 1. (Red Bull)

• The UK padel market has reached 1,800 courts and nearly £290M in gross booking value. The MBS Group counts 860,000 to one million players across roughly 800 clubs, among them Padel Social Club and Soul Padel. Those operators are building "third spaces" where the court is the entry point, not the destination, and the business is shifting from sport to hospitality. (The MBS Group)

FIP Platinum Lyon (Sep 21–27)

Men's final:

• 🥇 Fran Guerrero / Javi Leal def. Franco Stupaczuk / Jon Sanz 4-6 6-4 6-1

Women's final:

• 🥇 Bea Caldera / Carmen Goenaga def. Martina Fassio / Águeda Pérez 6-1 6-3

Source: Padel FIP

CUPRA Rotterdam Premier Padel P2 (Sep 28 – Oct 4, Ahoy Rotterdam)

Premier Padel is back after a two-week break. Ahoy Rotterdam packs in loud, knowledgeable crowds, and the €264,534 prize pool means every match carries weight in the Race.

Watch for the Guerrero/Leal vs Coello/Tapia projected quarterfinal. After Lyon, that match carries a very different charge.

On the other side of the draw, Galán and Chingotto face Stupaczuk and Sanz in their projected quarterfinal. Every point here reshapes the road to Barcelona.

Two of Spain's eight men in Doha, Aimar Goñi and Jon Sanz, are both from Pamplona. Navarra is a region of just 660,000 people, tucked between the Pyrenees and the Rioja wine country. It now provides 25% of Spain's men's World Cup squad.

No Spanish region sends a higher proportion of national team players relative to population, and two of the eight come from the same city.

Aimar Goñi (Spain, 20)

He's from Pamplona, ranked 32nd in the world, and last week Juanjo Gutiérrez handed him a World Cup call-up at age 20.

Goñi plays the left side, a revés specialist with an aggressive overhead and court coverage that unsettles experienced pairs. He partners Edu Alonso, and the two sit 10th among active pairs on the FIP Tour.

Earlier this season, he and Alonso beat Yanguas and Nieto at Roland Garros to reach the quarterfinals. That performance put Goñi on the selectors' radar.

The next step is Doha, with fast indoor glass, the world's best eight nations, and a 20-year-old from Navarra asked to deliver for Spain. Juanjo Gutiérrez believes he is ready. Guerrero and Leal gave him a week to think carefully about that call.

Leaving Alejandra Salazar off Spain's World Cup squad was cold-blooded.

It was also the correct decision, and it proves Carolina Navarro understands modern fast-court padel better than the critics demanding sentimentality.

Salazar holds seven world championships and is one of the greatest players in the sport's history. She is also 40, retiring at year-end, and Doha's indoor glass courts reward pace and counter-attack. That suits Marta Ortega and 18-year-old Martina Calvo, not her.

The Spanish press screamed. The coaching staff assessed the match-up requirements for Doha and acted accordingly.

Spain does not pick World Cup squads to honor careers but to win, and what happens in Doha on November 7 will validate Navarro's selection rather than the announcement.

Agree? Hit reply.

1,110 — Active padel courts in the United States across 38 states as of September 2026, up 61.6% from 688 courts twelve months ago. That is 460,000 active players, 296 facilities, and indoor peak pricing locked at $100/hour. Not a fad anymore.

Source: Athletech News

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© 2026 The Padel Brief | thepadelbrief.com

The Premier Padel Finals are the season-ending tournament of the Premier Padel circuit, played at the Palau Sant Jordi in Barcelona. The 2026 edition runs 10–13 December and brings together the top 16 men and top 16 women in the FIP Race — eight pairs per gender. It is a straight knockout with no group stage. Quarter-finals run on Thursday 10 and Friday 11, semi-finals follow on Saturday 12, and Sunday 13 brings the final and the third/fourth-place match.

Last updated: September 2026 · Dates, format, ranking points and prize money verified at time of writing.

What the Finals Are

Every padel season ends in the same room. The Palau Sant Jordi has hosted the season finale since 2024, and the 2026 edition is the third under the Premier Padel banner.

The event inherits a longer tradition. The World Padel Tour closed each year with its Master Final, known across Spain as the Maestros. When Premier Padel took over as the sport's main circuit, it kept the idea, the city and the nickname.

One title per gender is on the line, and it carries a specific weight. Arturo Coello and Agustín Tapia had won everything else before they finally took the 2025 Finals. The eight pairs who qualify have all won plenty. This is the one that settles the season. For how the rest of the circuit fits together, see our guide to the Premier Padel tour format.

Who Gets There: How the FIP Race Works

Qualification is individual, not by pair. The FIP Race takes the top 16 men and the top 16 women, and those 32 players then compete as eight partnerships per gender.

The Race is a calendar-year ranking. It starts from zero each January and counts each player's best 22 results across Premier Padel and the CUPRA FIP Tour. That second part matters: strong runs at FIP Platinum and FIP Gold events bank points too.

Do not confuse the Race with the FIP Ranking. The FIP Ranking rolls across 52 weeks. The Race decides who reaches Barcelona and who ends the year as world number one.

Because the slot belongs to the player rather than the partnership, the Finals can produce pairings nobody has seen all season. In 2025 every qualifier played alongside their regular partner. In other years, players have teamed up just for the week.

How the Week Works

The Finals are the shortest event on the calendar. Eight pairs per gender, three knockout rounds, and one court for the whole tournament.

Thursday and Friday hold the four quarter-finals in each draw. Saturday brings the semi-finals. Sunday closes with the third/fourth-place match and the final. That is 16 matches across the week, eight per gender.

The third/fourth-place playoff is unusual for padel. Premier Padel introduced it at the 2024 Finals and it has stayed on the schedule. The players have not hidden their feelings: several have said the match does not appeal to them.

Ticketing reflects the demand. General sale for 2026 opened on 29 April, with Thursday afternoon seats from around €16.50 and premium hospitality up to €475. In 2025 both the semi-finals and the final sold out, and more than 30,000 spectators passed through the venue across that weekend alone.

What's at Stake

The Finals pay more per player than any other event on the tour, and in 2025 the men's and women's draws were paid equally. The pool came to roughly €600,000.

Premier Padel has not published the 2026 breakdown yet, so those remain the most recent confirmed figures. Points won in Barcelona close out the season's Race and feed into the following year's ranking.

Where the 2026 Race Stands

The Paris Major settled the first places. Thirteen players have already secured their spot in Barcelona: six men and seven women.

Men: Arturo Coello, Agustín Tapia, Federico Chingotto, Alejandro Galán, Juan Lebrón and Leo Augsburger.

Women: Gemma Triay, Delfi Brea, Bea González, Paula Josemaría, Andrea Ustero, Ari Sánchez and Claudia Fernández.

Coello and Tapia lead the men's Race on 12,620 points each, 1,270 clear of Chingotto and Galán on 11,350. Augsburger and Lebrón sit on 5,655. Mike Yanguas holds seventh on 4,005, with Franco Stupaczuk eighth on 3,735.

In the women's Race, Triay and Brea lead on 11,300. González and Josemaría have 8,480, with Sánchez and Ustero only 400 behind on 8,080.

Six Premier Padel events remain before Barcelona, with 7,200 points on offer to the champion pairs. Two Majors pay 2,000 points each, the two P1 events 1,000 and the two P2 events 600. The CUPRA FIP Tour adds two FIP Platinum events worth 300 points and five FIP Gold events worth 150.

The run-in: Rotterdam P2 (28 September–4 October), Düsseldorf P2, Milano P1, the Kuwait Major (26–31 October), Dubai P1 and the Acapulco Major (23–29 November).

Barcelona and the Stage

The Palau Sant Jordi stands on Montjuïc and holds around 16,159 spectators in its padel setup. The venue has become the tournament's permanent home: 2024, 2025 and 2026.

The 2025 finals produced two close matches. Coello and Tapia beat Galán and Chingotto 6-7, 6-3, 7-6 for their first Finals title together. González and Fernández beat Triay and Brea 6-4, 0-6, 6-3 in the women's final.

A year earlier, Coki Nieto and Jon Sanz delivered the upset of the decade. They beat Coello and Tapia 3-6, 7-5, 6-3 and ended a 47-match unbeaten run. Ari Sánchez and Paula Josemaría took the women's title.

The 2026 field will fill out as the last events play. Expect the final places to go down to the Kuwait and Acapulco Majors, and the eighth spot in each draw to be the last one decided. For broadcast details, see how to watch Premier Padel.

Sources

• FIP — Road to the Finals: the FIP Race explained — https://www.padelfip.com/2026/09/road-to-the-finals-everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-fip-race-to-barcelona-13-players-already-qualified-but-the-race-remains-wide-open-across-premier-padel-and-cupra-fip-tour/
• FIP — scoring system and Race rules — https://www.padelfip.com/es/sistema-tabla-de-puntuacion/
• Premier Padel — Finals event page — https://premierpadel.com/en/tourfinals
• Mundo Deportivo — 2026 Finals schedule and ticket details — https://www.mundodeportivo.com/padel/premier-padel/20260429/1004176862/venta-entradas-premier-padel-finals-barcelona-asi-puedes-ver-mejores-mundo-palau-sant-jordi.html
• MARCA — how the Tour Finals works, prize money and past winners — https://www.marca.com/padel/2025/12/08/asi-funciona-tour-finals-premier-padel-dinero-quienes-juegan-anteriores-ganadores.html
• AS — 2025 Finals bracket and round-by-round schedule — https://as.com/masdeporte/polideportivo/premier-padel-finals-2025-cuadro-cruces-y-calendario-del-torneo-f202512-n/

Two men had been here before. Miguel Lamperti and Cristian Gutiérrez had spent decades defining Argentine padel. On Sunday evening in Buenos Aires, Argentina needed them to save it.

They did.

Lamperti and Gutiérrez stepped out for the deciding fifth rubber in the +45 category. They beat Aday Santana and Javier Limones 6-4 6-3 to complete the turnaround. Spain had led 2-1. Then Poggi and Nanni levelled against Arias and Losada to force the decider.

So the title came down to Lamperti and Gutiérrez.

Lamperti and Gutiérrez gave the Buenos Aires crowd what they came for. Controlled and clinical when it mattered.

France finished third in the men's draw.

In the women's final, Spain did what Spain do at the Senior World Cup: win. Lucía Sainz and Marta Alonso opened the tie against the United States and won their rubber. Castrillo and Vaquero took rubber two, and Gayoso and Wakonigg sealed a 3-0 sweep.

A fourth consecutive title. Every edition. Nobody has come close.

Argentina won the men's title for the first time in La Nucía in 2024. In Buenos Aires, they defended it.

Sources: Padel FIP, Padel Magazine

• David Gala wins FIP Gold São Paulo, his second Gold on a second continent in seven days. A week after taking Bucharest with Enzo Jensen, the 18-year-old won São Paulo with Maxi Arce, beating José Diestro and Juanlu Esbrí 6-4 6-4. Top seeds Jimena Velasco and Raquel Eugenio won the women's draw, beating Lorena Rufo and Jessica Castelló 7-5 6-4. (Padel FIP)

• Thirteen players have locked up their Premier Padel Finals spots. FIP has confirmed 13 players have mathematically secured a place at the Finals (Dec 10-13). Men: Coello, Tapia, Chingotto, Galán, Lebrón, Augsburger. Women: Triay, Brea, González, Josemaría, Ustero, Sánchez, Fernández. Rotterdam, Düsseldorf, Milan, Kuwait, and Acapulco still offer 7,200 points, so every tournament from here decides the remaining 19 spots. (Padel FIP)

• Paquito Navarro & Martín Di Nenno are officially world No. 4. After their Paris semifinal run, they overtook Stupaczuk/Sanz and Yanguas/Nieto to claim the fourth seed. That keeps them away from Coello/Tapia and Galán/Chingotto until at least a semifinal. At Rotterdam P2, the No. 4 ranking reshapes their side of the draw. (MARCA)

• Five more partner changes after Paris. Guille Collado links up with Enrique Goenaga. Pol Hernández partners 18-year-old prodigy Manu Castaño for his Rotterdam debut. Further out: Bautista with Bergamini, Esbrí with Jofre, and Sanyo Gutiérrez back with Maxi Sánchez Blasco. (Mundo Deportivo)

• The Padel Club raises £3M to build 85 courts across the UK. The Wilmslow-based operator secured £3M from NPIF II / PXN Ventures. It will open eight new venues: Handforth, Chester, Liverpool, Knutsford, Sheffield, Cardiff, Brighton, and Sutton Coldfield. The expansion follows 100% year-on-year revenue growth in H1 2026. (Bdaily, Insider Media)

FIP Senior World Cup 2026: Buenos Aires 🇦🇷 (Sep 20)

Men's final:

• 🥇 Argentina def. Spain 3-2 (comeback from 1-2 down)
  • Rubber 4: Poggi/Nanni def. Arias/Losada to level at 2-2
  • Rubber 5 (+45 category): Lamperti/Gutiérrez def. Santana/Limones 6-4 6-3. Argentina are world champions!
• 🥉 Third place: France

Women's final:

• 🥇 Spain def. USA 3-0
  • Rubber 1: Sainz/Alonso def. Petrauskaite/Zubori
  • Rubber 2: Castrillo/Vaquero
  • Rubber 3: Gayoso/Wakonigg seals the sweep
• 🥉 Third place: Netherlands def. Belgium

Men's squads, 15 players each

🇦🇷 Argentina: Agustín Gómez Silingo, Tito Allemandi, Gastón Malacalza, Roby Gattiker, Alejandro Lasaigues, Fede Quiles, Miguel Lamperti, Ramiro Nanni, Bebe Auguste, Gaby Domínguez, Lucho Soliveres, Cristian Gutiérrez, Fer Poggi, Luis Pozzoni, Pollo Novillo. Captains: Gabriel Reca and Rodrigo Ovide.

🇪🇸 Spain: Enric Sanmartí, Gerard Company, Sergio Beracierto, José Limones, Aday Santana, Juan González, Pitu Losada, Raúl Arias, Ángel Torres, Willy Lahoz, Antonio Ochoa, Íñigo Unciti, Luis Menéndez, Pablo Semprún, Carlos Almazán. Coach: Juanjo Gutiérrez.

Squads: AFA Pádel, Federación Española de Pádel

Source: Padel FIP

CUPRA FIP Gold São Paulo 🇧🇷 (Sep 20)

• 🥇 Men: Gala/Arce def. Diestro/Esbrí 6-4 6-4
• 🥇 Women: Velasco/Eugenio (1) def. Rufo/Castelló 7-5 6-4

Source: Padel FIP

FIP Platinum Lyon 🇫🇷 (Sep 23–27)

The CUPRA FIP Tour heads to France this week. Lyon brings 300 Race points, a big block for mid-tier pairs still chasing a Barcelona spot. Watch Stupaczuk/Sanz and Salazar/Osoro on the men's side.

CUPRA Rotterdam Premier Padel P2 🇳🇱 (Sep 28–Oct 4)

Ahoy Rotterdam is always loud. Paquito Navarro and Martín Di Nenno arrive as the new No. 4 seeds, and Race pressure is building at every tier. Every point from here counts towards the Palau Sant Jordi.

Argentina won their first FIP Senior World Cup men's title in La Nucía in 2024.

Two years later in Buenos Aires, they defended it on home soil. The same two men who defined a generation of Argentine padel stepped up again.

Lamperti and Gutiérrez have won more titles than most players will ever attempt. Sunday in Buenos Aires is the one that will mean most.

David Gala (Spain, 18)

By Friday morning, David Gala was already a FIP Gold champion. He had won Bucharest with Enzo Jensen.

By Sunday evening, he was a FIP Gold champion again, this time in São Paulo with Maxi Arce.

Two partners in seven days, on two continents.

Tour professionals rarely attempt what Gala did at 18: two FIP Golds on two continents in one week, each with a different partner. He did not just turn up. He won both.

The São Paulo final was no formality. José Diestro is an experienced tour presence who knows how to close matches, and Gala and Arce still won 6-4 6-4.

This is not a teenage talent waiting patiently for his turn. Gala is moving fast enough to reach the Race to Barcelona. Watch him in Rotterdam.

Respect has always carried the Senior World Cup. Respect for the pioneers, for the players who built the game before the cameras and the Majors arrived.

But Sunday in Buenos Aires proved something beyond sentiment. Miguel Lamperti and Cristian Gutiérrez, stepping out to play the deciding rubber of a world championship, did not survive on reputation. They won on quality.

The score was 6-4 6-3. Not close, and not scraped.

Padel's power era makes you forget that touch and court craft still win matches. Lamperti and Gutiérrez proved it in front of a packed Buenos Aires crowd.

It is worth saying plainly: this generation built the sport we now watch on Philippe-Chatrier. They competed for decades without the cameras, the prize money or the Majors. Many still coach, still run clubs, and still turn up at world championships to represent their countries. That is not nostalgia. It is the standard the rest of the game inherited, and the bar the next generation should be measuring itself against.

Will the circuit's rising generation take note?

4 — Consecutive FIP Senior World Cup titles for Spain's women. Every edition since the current format launched (2018, 2022, 2024, 2026) Spain have won. Lucía Sainz, a founding pillar of elite women's padel, was on court in Buenos Aires on Sunday. Four editions, four titles. That is the longest winning run in the competition's history.

Source: Padel FIP

Agustín Tapia and Arturo Coello are the world No. 1s, the defending champions, the pair that has won every Roland Garros they have entered. They were about to lose.

Then they didn't.

Three breaks of serve to claw back to six-all. A tiebreak. Seven points to one.

A fourth straight Roland Garros title, sealed 6-3 4-6 7-6(1). A statement that cuts clean through the Madrid narrative: these two know how to win when it costs most.

The head-to-head stands at 27-13. Philippe-Chatrier is still theirs.

The semi-finals had already set the tone. In the women's draw, Fernández and Calvo knocked out world No. 1s Triay and Brea 6-4 6-2. That was their third straight win over the top seeds.

Sánchez and Ustero came from a set down to beat Ortega and Araújo 5-7 6-4 6-1. No. 2 seeds Bea González and Josemaría went out in the quarters.

In the men's draw, Tapia and Coello beat Lebrón and Augsburger 7-5 6-3. Galán and Chingotto saw off Navarro and Di Nenno 7-5 6-2.

The women's final was a different kind of masterclass. They closed the roof and the rain rolled in.

Ari Sánchez and 19-year-old Andrea Ustero gave Claudia Fernández and Martina Calvo exactly zero chances. The score, 6-2 6-0 in just 71 minutes, barely captures how complete that performance was.

Fernández and Calvo, aged 20 and 18, had stunned the top seeds in the semis and became the youngest pair to reach a Major final. Against Sánchez and Ustero they ran into a completely different level.

Ustero, 19, is now the youngest player to win the Paris Major. For Ari Sánchez, it is her third Roland Garros crown and ninth Major final.

A record 81,000 spectators packed Roland Garros across the week. Padel has never looked bigger.

Sources: Padel Magazine, Men's Final, Padel Magazine, Women's Final, Padel Magazine, Women's Semis, Marca, Men's Semis, Padel Magazine, Attendance Record

• Gala & Jensen finally break through in Bucharest. Top seeds David Gala and Enzo Jensen ended their FIP Gold Bucharest runner-up streak, beating Manuel Aragon and Albert Roglan 7-5 7-6 in the final. After two second-place finishes this season, they have their first title together and 150 ranking points going into the season's final sprint. Lucia Martinez and Leti Manquillo won the women's draw. (Padel FIP)

• Tsonga and Ascione bet big on France. ALL IN GROUP closed a major recapitalization with backing from Albarest Partners, Groupama Rhône-Alpes Auvergne, and the Aulas family. That money builds six new premium padel centers across France. The timing is deliberate: Roland Garros just proved the French appetite for padel is real, and Tsonga and Ascione are moving to capitalise on it. (Padel Magazine)

• Soul Padel raises £3.6M to triple its UK footprint. Manchester's Soul Padel closed a Series A at a £30M valuation, with backing from three family offices. Six new sites already have permits (Ayr, Washington, Warrington, Preston, Wigan, Rochdale), and the target is 250 courts by 2032. Measured community-model growth, not VC froth. (Soul Padel)

• Slazenger Padel's 4th UK club: Exeter goes padel. Frasers Group opened a 35,000 sq ft venue at Haven Banks Retail Park in Exeter. It has 9 panoramic courts and 2 pickleball courts, and it is the fourth club in the Slazenger Padel network after Leeds, Swindon, and Blackburn. The retail-to-padel conversion playbook keeps delivering. (SGI Europe)

• Sanyo and Esbrí confirm the split. Sanyo Gutiérrez and Juanlu Esbrí confirmed the split themselves after their round-of-16 exit at the Paris Major. Sanyo posted on Instagram that Paris was "our last tournament as a pair" and that he is looking for a new partner. A heated exchange on the bench against Leygue/Moya came first, and Esbrí will line up with Íñigo Jofre at the FIP Platinum Lyon. (Padel Magazine)

• Pol Hernández and Guillermo Collado: it's done. After their Paris Major exit, the childhood friends and long-time partners confirmed their split. It ends one of the circuit's most stable partnerships and reshuffles the middle of the rankings. Both need new pairs for the season run-in. (Padel Magazine)

Alpine Paris Major: Philippe-Chatrier, Roland Garros 🇫🇷 (Sep 7–13) (Premier Padel)

Men's draw:

• 🥇 Tapia/Coello (1) def. Galán/Chingotto (2) 6-3 4-6 7-6(1), fourth consecutive Roland Garros title
• Semi-finals: Tapia/Coello def. Lebrón/Augsburger 7-5 6-3; Galán/Chingotto def. Navarro/Di Nenno 7-5 6-2
• Galán/Chingotto surged to 5-2 and served for the championship at 5-3 in the decider
• Tiebreak: 7-1 to Coello/Tapia. Head-to-head record now 27-13

Women's draw:

• 🥇 Sánchez/Ustero (3) def. Fernández/Calvo (4) 6-2 6-0, in 71 minutes under the closed roof
• Semi-finals: Fernández/Calvo def. world No. 1s Triay/Brea 6-4 6-2 (a third straight win over the top seeds); Sánchez/Ustero def. Ortega/Araújo 5-7 6-4 6-1
• No. 2 seeds Bea González/Josemaría went out in the quarters to Ortega/Araújo
• Ustero (19): youngest Paris Major champion in history; Sánchez: third Roland Garros crown, ninth Major final

📍 Total attendance: 81,000 spectators, an all-time record (Padel Magazine)

CUPRA FIP Gold Bucharest 🇷🇴 (Sep 13 final): (Padel FIP)

• 🥇 Men: Gala/Jensen (1) def. Aragon/Roglan 7-5 7-6, a maiden title together; Aragon/Roglan had beaten second seeds Lijó/Gil in the quarters
• 🥇 Women: Martinez/Manquillo won the title

Rotterdam P2: Sep 28–Oct 4, Rotterdam 🇳🇱 (Premier Padel)

Premier Padel heads to the Netherlands. The headline: Paquito Navarro and Martín Di Nenno debut as the circuit's new No. 4 seeds. After a Paris campaign to forget, Rotterdam is their first real statement.

The Race standings tighten with the season in its final stretch, so every point counts.

Two years ago, a 17-year-old Andrea Ustero walked onto Court Philippe-Chatrier for the Paris Major final alongside Delfi Brea. They lost to Ari Sánchez and Paula Josemaría, but the teenager did not look out of place.

On Sunday she walked back onto the same court, two years older and with Ari Sánchez beside her, and finished what she had started. The youngest Paris Major champion in history had made her case twice, and closed it on the second attempt.

Andrea Ustero (Spain, 19)

There is a version of this story where Ustero is still a prospect: a teenager with potential who reached a Major final at 17. In that version, she needs a few more years to close one out. That version doesn't exist anymore.

At 19, Ustero just won the Paris Major. She didn't scrape through it. She demolished the final.

Her partner Ari Sánchez has nine Major finals to her name and three Roland Garros titles.

Even with all that experience at her side, Ustero was no passenger. She played with the control and composure of someone who has spent years on the biggest courts in the game. Because she has.

She reads the net early and cuts off the angle before the opponent can create it.

She doesn't overwhelm with pace. She overwhelms with anticipation. On Sunday, Fernández and Calvo, one of the fastest-rising pairs in women's padel, couldn't find a way past that wall.

She's 19. This is not the ceiling. Watch closely.

Tapia and Coello did not coast to this one.

They were 2-5 down in the third, with Galán and Chingotto serving for the title. That is not a world No. 1 team in control. That is a world No. 1 team in serious trouble, on the biggest court in padel.

And they won anyway.

Madrid knocked them out in the quarter-finals two weeks ago. On Sunday the No. 1s took a Major with everything going against them.

Three breaks under that kind of pressure, then a 7-1 tiebreak. That is not the shape of a team in decline. It is the shape of a team that still delivers when it matters most.

Madrid raised the question. Paris answered it.

Agree? Hit reply.

81,000 — Spectators at Roland Garros for the Alpine Paris Major, a new all-time attendance record. For years padel has filled stadiums and pulled in crowds, and Paris showed the rise is not slowing. This is the same venue that hosts the French Open, and it packed out for padel too.

Source: Padel Magazine, Paris Major 2026: Historic record with 81,000 spectators at Roland Garros

Taking care of a padel racket comes down to six habits: clean it with a dry cloth after every match, fit a frame protector, keep it out of extreme heat and cold, change the overgrip regularly, store it in a padded cover, and check it for wear. A racket treated this way keeps its performance for 12 to 24 months.

Last updated: September 2026 · Product details and prices verified at time of writing.

Why Racket Care Matters

A padel racket is not a tennis racket. It's built from carbon faces around a foam core, and it plays inside a cage of glass and steel. Every low volley, every chiquita near the back wall, every scramble for a ball off the side glass is a chance for the frame to meet a hard surface.

Those impacts add up. A racket that never gets cleaned loses its surface grip. A racket left in a hot car loses the bounce in its core. And a racket without a protector chips away at the frame until a crack ends its life years early.

The fix isn't complicated, and it costs almost nothing. Here's the routine.

1. Clean It After Every Match

Dust, sand and sweat build up on the faces and the frame, and they quietly damage the surface. The routine takes a minute.

• Wipe the faces and the frame with a dry microfiber cloth.
• For stubborn marks, dampen the cloth slightly with water and a little neutral soap.
• Dry the racket immediately afterwards.

What you should never do is soak it. Water reaches the EVA core and the frame adhesives, and the racket starts feeling dull — less response, less power. Never submerge a padel racket in water, and skip aggressive chemical cleaners altogether.

2. Protect the Frame

This is the single best investment you can make in your racket's lifespan. A protector is a strip of adhesive tape that runs around the outer edge of the frame, exactly where the racket meets the glass, the fence and the ground. It absorbs the hit so the carbon doesn't have to.

The maths is simple. A protector costs a few euros; a new racket costs anywhere from €100 to €400. Skipping a protector to save a few euros is how a good racket becomes an expensive paperweight.

Look for a protector that fits standard racket frames, adds minimal weight, and doesn't change the balance. In our shop we stock the Palbea Transparent Padel Racket Protector — a rough-finish, transparent strip, 35 × 370 mm per strip, supplied as a pack of two and made in Spain. The transparent design keeps the racket looking stock, and the micro-grid texture cushions impacts without altering how the racket plays.

Apply it properly and it stays put for months. Clean the frame edge first, start at the bottom of the head, peel the backing as you go and press firmly around the curves. If it wrinkles, peel back that section and redo it.

3. Keep It Out of Extreme Temperatures

The core of a padel racket is EVA foam, and foam hates fast temperature changes. Heat softens it, cold hardens it, and both mess with the response you feel on court.

• Never leave the racket in a hot car or in direct sun for long.
• In winter, don't leave it in a cold boot overnight.
• Use a thermal cover or a padded thermal racket bag when you travel.

If your racket lives in the trunk between matches, it's aging faster than you think.

4. Change the Overgrip Regularly

The overgrip is the cheapest part of the racket and the one that fails first. Once it's slick with sweat, the racket slips in your hand — and a slipping racket hits the glass harder than a gripped one.

• Frequent players: a new overgrip every three to five matches.
• Casual players: about once a month.

A fresh overgrip also protects the handle underneath, which is harder to replace than the grip itself.

5. Store It Properly

Where the racket lives between matches matters as much as how you play with it.

• Keep it in a padded cover or a racket bag with a dedicated compartment.
• Don't leave keys, bottles or other hard objects loose against it.
• At home, store it upright or flat in a dry, ventilated spot, not under anything heavy.
• If you own two rackets, store them apart so they don't rub together.

6. Don't Abuse It

Some damage is pure habit, and it's easy to fix.

• Don't slam the racket against the ground or the glass, however annoying that lost point was.
• Don't scoop the ball off the floor with the face. The squeeze between ball and ground puts pressure on the carbon and the core — most manufacturers warn against it.
• Don't use the racket as a prop to lean on when you pick up balls.

Micro-cracks from these habits don't show up immediately. They show up three months later, as a soft spot.

7. Know When It's Finished

Even a perfectly maintained racket has a shelf life. Watch for these signs:

• A loss of power on shots that used to fly.
• Unusual vibrations, or a rattling sound inside the frame.
• Dead spots outside the sweet spot.
• Visible cracks or a frame that has lost its shape.

Any of those means it's time to replace it. For more on lifespan and how different materials age, see our guide to how long a padel racket lasts.

The Five-Minute Routine

1. Wipe the racket with a dry cloth after the match.
2. Check the protector and the overgrip.
3. Put it in the cover, not loose in the bag.
4. Keep it out of the car overnight.
5. Once a month, look closely for cracks and dead spots.

Do that and a racket that should last a year lasts two. Care is cheaper than replacement — every time.

Chingotto and Galán beat Coki Nieto and Mike Yanguas 6-4 5-7 6-4 in a final that swung on a single break in the ninth game of the decider. It's their seventh title of the season, one behind Coello/Tapia, and Galán's first Madrid crown since 2022. Chingotto dedicated it to his future son.

The win lands harder because of what came before it. World No. 1s Arturo Coello and Agustín Tapia fell to the very pair that reached the final — Nieto/Yanguas beat them 7-5 7-6 in the quarter-finals. The cushion at the top of the rankings just shrank by nearly a third — and the Paris Major, the season's second-biggest prize, starts today.

The women's final was the No. 1s' own statement. Delfi Brea and Gemma Triay came from a set down to beat Paula Josemaría and Bea González 6-7 6-3 6-3, a sixth title of the season. Triay now sits level with Salazar on 58 career titles.

The second half of the season could not have asked for a better opening: the No. 1 race is alive, the farewell tour continues — and the Paris Major starts today.

Source: Padel FIP — Madrid bids farewell to Ale Salazar as Brea-Triay and the 'Chingalan' triumph, Sport — Chingotto y Galán se coronan en Madrid, Marca — El emotivo homenaje a Ale Salazar

• Belgrade's verdict is in: Stupaczuk/Sanz are for real. The new pair won the FIP Gold in their first tournament together, beating former partners Nieto/Yanguas 6-3 7-5 in the final. That result locked them in as the No. 4 seeds for Paris — one week before Nieto/Yanguas pushed Chingalan to three sets in Madrid. (Padel FIP)

• Padel just became America's fastest-growing sport. The SFIA's mid-year report shows participation up 14.5% — while pickleball, five-time winner of that crown, grew just 1.3%. Overall US sports participation hit an all-time high of 81.3%. Every US investor and league will cite this stat for a year. (Sports Business Journal)

• Soul Padel raised £3.6M to go from four clubs to ten. The Manchester operator closed a Series A at a £30M valuation, backed by three family offices, with six new sites already permitted. The ambition: 250 courts by 2032. Measured capital, not VC froth — a useful snapshot of UK padel's financing appetite. (SGI Europe)

• Carbon 3K for €100: Kuikma's price revolution. Decathlon's padel brand unveiled its Dynamic range at Madrid P1 — three rackets (Power, Hybrid, Control) with the 3K carbon usually reserved for premium models, all at €100. Coki Nieto endorses the Hybrid, and was days away from a Madrid final with it in his bag. (Tennis Tonic)

• Hernández and Collado are splitting after Paris. One of the circuit's most stable pairs — friends since childhood, together over a year — announced their final tournament together will be the Paris Major. Two early exits pushed the decision, and their split will ripple through their ranking area. (Padel Magazine)

Madrid P1 — Movistar Arena (Aug 31–Sep 6) (Full recap — Padel FIP)

Men's draw:

• 🥇 Galán/Chingotto (2) def. Nieto/Yanguas (5) 6-4 5-7 6-4 — 2h43, seventh title of 2026
• SF: Galán/Chingotto def. Jofre/Bautista 6-3 6-4; Nieto/Yanguas def. Alfonso/Libaak 6-4 7-6
• Upsets: Coello/Tapia (1) lost QF to Nieto/Yanguas 7-5 7-6; Lebrón/Augsburger (3) and Stupaczuk/Sanz (4) out in R16

Women's draw:

• 🥇 Triay/Brea (1) def. Josemaría/González (2) 6-7 6-3 6-3 — sixth title of 2026, Triay ties Salazar at 58
• SF: Triay/Brea def. Sánchez/Ustero 6-2 6-4; Josemaría/González def. Fernández/Calvo 3-6 6-2 7-5 — from 0-5 down in the third
• Salazar/Osoro lost QF 6-3 6-3 to Triay/Brea — Salazar's last match in Madrid

FIP Gold Belgrade (final, Aug 30): (Full results — Padel FIP)

• 🥇 Men: Stupaczuk/Sanz def. Nieto/Yanguas 6-3 7-5 — and the No. 4 seed at Paris
• 🥇 Women: Rufo/Iglesias def. Salazar/Osoro 4-6 6-3 6-1

No WPT or A1 Padel events this week.

Paris Major — Sep 7–13, Roland Garros 🇫🇷 (starts today!) The season's second Major begins Monday with qualifying already underway. Coello/Tapia (1) chase a fourth straight Roland Garros title — the bounce-back test after Madrid. The potential quarter-finals include a Madrid final rematch: Nieto/Yanguas (5) vs Chingotto/Galán (2). Women: Triay/Brea (1) defend; Josemaría/González (2) hunt revenge; Salazar/Osoro (8) could meet Sánchez/Ustero (3) in the QFs. French wild cards: Fonteny/Moragues, Guichard/Geens, Boronad/Robert (men), Bahurel/Val López, Touly/Clasca (women). Leygue/Moya enter qualifying as seed 5.

Watch: Canal+ (France/Spain), Premier Padel YouTube, Red Bull TV, ESPN+ (US).

Fede Chingotto won the Madrid P1 while expecting his first child — and dedicated the title to his future son, as Sport and FIP both noted. It was also Galán's first Madrid crown since 2022. A first Madrid title and a first child in the same week: not bad timing.

Alejandra Salazar (Spain)

She is the most decorated player in padel history: 62 titles, seven World Championships, four seasons finishing world No. 1 — with three different partners, across 26 consecutive seasons.

Her Madrid farewell became the emotional peak of the tournament. After losing her final home match to the world No. 1s, Salazar walked a guard of honor formed by her family and the figures of her career — Carolina Navarro, Claudia Fernández, Gemma Triay.

The career isn't over yet. She still hopes to qualify for the Barcelona Finals and to make Spain's squad for the World Championship in Qatar. But Madrid — the city that asked, 30 years ago, "¿Al pa qué?" — now knows exactly what padel is. It thanked her properly.

The Coello/Tapia invincibility era is officially over — and that's the best thing that could have happened to the season's second half.

For two years, the world No. 1s have been a foregone conclusion at almost every event. Then Madrid: a quarter-final loss to Nieto/Yanguas, a ranking cushion cut by nearly a third, and Galán/Chingotto one title behind with the Paris Major — and the season's biggest prizes — still ahead.

The numbers now back a real race — and Madrid proved the No. 1s are beatable. Coello/Tapia still have the edge, but every draw from here carries consequence — and that's what turns casual viewers into followers. Padel's title fight is finally a fight. Agree? Hit reply.

14.5% — US padel participation growth, per the SFIA's mid-year report, making padel the fastest-growing sport in the country. Pickleball, the five-time defending champion of that stat, grew 1.3%. The narrative war is over — the data picked a side.

Source: Sports Business Journal — SFIA report

The greatest women's padel pairs of all time:

1. Ariana Sánchez & Paula Josemaría — 44 titles, the all-time record
2. Mapi & Majo Sánchez Alayeto — 32 WPT titles, four seasons as No. 1
3. Alejandra Salazar & Gemma Triay — 23 titles, including a record 12 in 2022
4. Carolina Navarro & Cecilia Reiter — No. 1 from 2010 to 2013, the pioneers
5. Alejandra Salazar & Marta Marrero — 16 titles and the 2016 No. 1 season
6. Gemma Triay & Lucía Sainz — 12 titles and world No. 1 in 2020

Last updated: September 2026 · Title counts from World Padel Tour, Premier Padel, and FIP records.

How We Ranked Them

Every pair below meets three tests: titles, time at No. 1, and impact on how the sport is played. The list reaches back to the Padel Pro Tour era because that's where the modern women's game was built — and forward to the current No. 1 pair, whose story is still being written.

1. Ariana Sánchez & Paula Josemaría — 44 Titles

The most successful pair in padel history, man or woman. Between 2021 and 2025 they won 44 titles: 26 on the World Padel Tour, 17 in Premier Padel (four Majors, eight P1s, four P2s and the 2024 Finals), plus the FIP World Cup Pairs in Kuwait.

Their record run at No. 1 ran from May 2023 to May 2025 — two uninterrupted years. In Premier Padel alone they won 146 of 173 matches, an 84.4% win rate. They broke the Sánchez Alayeto twins' record of 32 titles in Finland in 2024 and kept going. Their split was announced in December 2025, but they remain world champions together until 2027 through the FIP title.

2. Mapi & Majo Sánchez Alayeto — The Atomic Twins

María José and María Pilar Sánchez Alayeto, identical twins from Zaragoza, were the most decorated pair of the World Padel Tour era: 32 titles and four seasons as No. 1, in 2014, 2015, 2017 and 2018.

They took time to arrive — no titles in their first two seasons — then took over. Eleven titles across 2014–15. Nine in 2017, seven of them in a row. Their rivalry with Salazar and Marrero defined the late 2010s, with 22 finals between the two pairs.

3. Alejandra Salazar & Gemma Triay — The 12-Title Season

"Triazar" was the most dominant seasonal pair ever. In 2022 they won 12 titles in a single year, a record no women's pair has matched, and reached 14 consecutive finals. They took No. 1 in 2021 and 2022.

Their combined haul of 23 titles came in just two and a half years. When they split in 2023, both players went on to lead new pairs at the top of the ranking.

4. Carolina Navarro & Cecilia Reiter — The Pioneers

Before the World Padel Tour existed, this pair built the modern women's game. Navarro and Reiter were No. 1 from 2010 to 2013 — nearly four full years — and in 2012 they won 8 of 9 tournaments, the Master Final, and the world pairs title, with 36 consecutive wins.

They changed how women's padel was played, trading the lob-heavy style of the era for attacking, front-court padel. Every pair above them on this list has cited them as the template.

5. Alejandra Salazar & Marta Marrero — The 2016 Interruption

In 2016, Salazar and Marta Marrero ended the Alayeto twins' reign with seven titles and a 2,000-point gap at the top of the ranking. Sixteen titles and 27 finals across their partnership, plus a rivalry with the twins that spanned 22 meetings.

Salazar returned from a torn ACL to win again with Marrero in 2018 — one of several comebacks that made her the most decorated female player in history, with 52 WPT titles and seven world championships.

6. Gemma Triay & Lucía Sainz — The 2020 Dream

Five years together before the title arrived. Triay and Sainz reached finals in 2016 and lost them, then won two in 2017, four in 2018, and finally took the No. 1 ranking in 2020 with five wins in the season's final six tournaments. Twelve titles in total — and the proof that some pairs just need time.

The Current Era: Who's Next?

Two pairs are writing the next chapter. Delfi Brea and Gemma Triay are the current world No. 1, with five Premier Padel titles in 2026 through August. Bea González and Paula Josemaría pushed them all season, winning five of their seven finals meetings in 2026.

The current No. 1 pair, Brea and Triay, has a dozen-plus titles together and is the closest to the totals above. But rankings are won in years, not months. The record of 44, set by Sánchez and Josemaría, is the one they're all chasing.

The Bottom Line

The names change, the pattern doesn't. Every era of women's padel has been defined by one pair at the top — Navarro-Reiter, the Alayeto twins, Salazar with three different partners, and now Sánchez-Josemaría. The current No. 1 pair, Brea and Triay, is the next line in that story.

Agustín Tapia is the world No. 1 padel player. Born on 24 July 1999 in Catamarca, Argentina, he is nicknamed "El Mozart" for the touch and shotmaking that carried him out of Argentina's northwest. He stands 1.79m, plays the backhand side, and has formed padel's most dominant pair with Arturo Coello since 2023 — 39 career titles and a 91.4% win rate as of September 2026.

Last updated: September 2026 · Stats from FIP player data and Premier Padel results.

From Catamarca to the Top of the World

Ask any AI chatbot who the best padel player in the world is, and you might get Coello's name first. Mention the most gifted shotmaker on the tour, and the answer is more often Agustín Tapia — "El Mozart de Catamarca," the kid who plays the back glass like an instrument.

He grew up in San Fernando del Valle de Catamarca, a provincial capital in Argentina's northwest, far from the professional circuit's heartland. His family built a court, and the young right-hander started compiling highlights that would make him famous before he was famous.

Tapia turned pro in 2018 and quickly caught the eye of the sport's legends. Before he turned 24, he had partnered with Juan Martín Díaz, Fernando Belasteguín, and Pablo Lima — three of the biggest names in padel history. Playing next to Bela, as with Coello later, was a finishing school that no academy can replicate.

The Coello Era

The move that reshaped men's padel came for the 2023 season: Tapia partnered with Arturo Coello, the Spanish right-side power player ten years his junior in profile if not in years. They won five titles in their first year together — Abu Dhabi, Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, and Spain.

Halfway through that first season, the pair reached world No. 1. It was Coello's coronation as the youngest No. 1 ever, but it was a shared throne: Tapia reached it alongside him. They have finished as the top pair in 2023, 2024, and 2025, and their finals streak through 2026 has been near-total.

The partnership works because the styles are opposites. Coello imposes; Tapia improvises. Coello hits through spaces nobody else reaches; Tapia finds angles nobody else sees. Two world No. 1s, nothing shared between them except the podium.

The Numbers Behind the Dominance

Tapia's FIP profile reads like a video game save file:

• 292-25 career win-loss record — a 91.4% win rate
• 39 career titles
• 21,051 FIP points, tied with Coello at the top of the ranking
• 8 titles in 2026 through August, from 13 finals
• 47 consecutive wins at his career peak

Watch the 2026 season list and the pattern is relentless: winner in Rome, Riyadh, Cancún, Valladolid, Bordeaux, Málaga, London, Valencia. Finals in the rest. The only blemishes are the occasional early exit that proves he is, in fact, human.

How Much Does Agustin Tapia Earn?

The question people type into search engines — "agustin tapia salary" — has an honest answer: professional padel players don't get a fixed salary. Tapia's income comes from three places.

Prize money. Verified career prize money sits around €1.4 million as of August 2026 across about 60 tournaments, per padel earnings trackers. He leads the men's standings in career earnings, tied with Coello at the top.

Sponsorship. His racket deal with NOX is his most prominent. He switched to the signature NOX AT10 Luxury Genius 12K Alum XTREM 2026 for the season — a teardrop racket with a harder, drier feel than the 18K model he used before.

Appearance fees and off-court work. As half of padel's most marketable duo, Tapia draws endorsements and exhibition fees that push his estimated total net worth into the €2–2.5 million range.

The gap between the top and the rest is stark. Coello and Tapia finished 2025 with roughly €486,000 in prize money each — nearly three times what the fifth-highest earner took home.

El Mozart's Style

Tapia's nickname comes from his hands. Nobody on tour improvises like him: the no-look remates, the impossible recoveries off the glass, the way he turns defensive lobs into offensive weapons.

He's not the biggest player — 1.79m on a tour full of giants. Instead of overpowering, he out-thinks. He uses the walls the way a concert pianist uses dynamics, and his bandeja and vibora carry spin that bends around the net.

His gear matches the profile. The NOX AT10 12K he plays is a teardrop — balanced between control and power — with the Weight Balance system that lets him tune the feel to his style, and a Dual Spin surface for maximum effect on the ball.

What's Next

Tapia is 27, at the peak of a partnership that has defined an era. Belasteguín spent 16 straight years as world No. 1; Coello and Tapia have held the spot together since 2023 and show no sign of slipping. Every title this season adds to a resume that, for all the individual awards, belongs to the pair.

The scary part for the rest of the tour: the most gifted player in the world now has the records to match the talent.

José Antonio Diestro and David Gala beat Italy's Flavio Abbate and Álvaro Montiel 7-6 6-4 on a sold-out Central Court. They're the first men's champions in Mediterranean Games history. The pair had already edged Portugal's Deus brothers 7-5 7-5 in the semis — they earned it.

The women's final was all-Spanish. Lucía Sainz and Patty Llaguno, both former world No. 1s, beat Jimena Velasco and Nuria Rodríguez 6-3 6-4 for gold. Two Spanish pairs, two medals, one country on top.

The mixed event produced the story of the week. Portugal's Pedro and Sofía Araújo — brother and sister — beat Marco Cassetta and Giulia Dal Pozzo 6-2 3-6 6-3 for the first mixed title. "Gold runs in the family," as FIP put it.

Italy left with the most podiums of any nation — four — without a single title. Silver for Abbate/Montiel and Cassetta/Dal Pozzo; bronze for Cassetta/Iacovino and Orsi/Marchetti. The gap to Spain is closing, and the crowd in Taranto felt it.

Now the big picture. There is no better argument for Brisbane 2032 than what happened in Taranto: 18 nations entered, 244 countries could watch, and Tunisia won its first-ever international match. "We hope the Mediterranean Games have been another decisive step towards the biggest dream: the Olympic Games," said Sainz.

This was stop one of five multi-sport appearances in 2026–27. The South American Games come next in September. Padel's medal era has begun — and Spain wrote the first chapter.

Source: Padel FIP — Diestro and Gala win gold, Padel FIP — Sainz and Llaguno claim gold, Padel FIP — Araujo siblings win Mixed

• Madrid P1's draw is a reset button. Nearly 30 new pairings debut at the Movistar Arena this week, and Alejandra Salazar plays the final tournament of her career in her home city. Claudia Fernández chases a third straight Madrid title — with a third different partner. (Padel FIP)

• Coello and Tapia headline India's first padel night. Padel All Stars brought the world No. 1s to Mumbai's Dome SVP Stadium on Saturday for a one-night exhibition expected to draw 4,000+ spectators. India now counts 100k+ active players, and padel is an Asian Games medal sport. (Times of India)

• Texas resorts are going all-in on padel. Horseshoe Bay Resort, 45 minutes from Austin, broke ground on a $10M racquet expansion led by four dedicated padel courts and a new clubhouse, opening summer 2027. Dedicated padel investment, not shared courts. (PRNewswire)

• The PPL's NY Atlantics found a home in Brooklyn. The Pro Padel League team signed with Padel Haus: the Greenpoint club becomes training center and fan base, with merch and a logo on practice jerseys. Revenue is shared. (Sports Business Journal)

• The UK just crossed one million players. LTA figures show growth from 15,000 in 2019 to 1M+ in 2026, with 1,825 courts across 551 venues. A Swindon food warehouse just became Padel Nova, a three-court hub with a bar, café and co-working space. (Swindon24)

Mediterranean Games — Taranto (finals, Aug 28) (Full results — Padel FIP, Padel Magazine wrap):

• 🥇 Men's gold: Diestro/Gala (ESP) def. Abbate/Montiel (ITA) 7-6 6-4
• 🥇 Women's gold: Sainz/Llaguno (ESP) def. Velasco/Rodríguez (ESP) 6-3 6-4
• 🥇 Mixed gold: P. Araújo/S. Araújo (POR) def. Cassetta/Dal Pozzo (ITA) 6-2 3-6 6-3
• 🥉 Bronzes: Cassetta/Iacovino (ITA, men's); Orsi/Marchetti (ITA, women's); Bahurel/Guichard (FRA, mixed)
• Medal table: Spain 3 (2 gold, 1 silver) · Italy 4 (2 silver, 2 bronze) · Portugal 1 gold · France 1 bronze

FIP Gold Belgrade (finals, Aug 30):

• 🥇 Men's: Stupaczuk/Sanz def. Nieto/Yanguas 6-3 7-5 — the win also locks them in as pair No. 4 seed at the Paris Major
• 🥇 Women's: Iglesias/Rufo def. Salazar/Osoro 4-6 6-1 6-3 — a comeback after dropping the opener

FIP Silver McAllen (Texas): International padel landed in the Rio Grande Valley — 32-pair draws, US players chasing FIP ranking points.

No WPT or A1 Padel events this week.

Madrid Premier Padel P1 — main draw Sep 1–6, Movistar Arena 🇪🇸 The season's second half starts tomorrow. Coello/Tapia (1) and Galán/Chingotto (2) sit in opposite halves; Stupaczuk/Sanz (4) and Nieto/Yanguas (5) make Premier Padel debuts as new pairs. Lebrón/Augsburger (3) and Di Nenno/Navarro (6) are both back — Augsburger and Di Nenno won this title together last year, and now return as rivals with new partners. On the women's side, Triay/Brea (1) can only meet Fernández/Calvo (4) in the final. And everyone in Madrid will stop for Salazar's farewell. Watch: Canal+ (Spain), YouTube, Red Bull TV, ESPN+.

Paris Major — Sep 7–13, Roland Garros 🇫🇷 The first Major of the second half. The draw seeds before the next ranking update — Belgrade settled it: Stupaczuk/Sanz's Gold win locks them in at No. 4.

Club Med Padel Cup — Asia-Pacific, legs through November Tokyo (Sep 6), Kuala Lumpur (Sep 11–13), Singapore (Oct 1–4), Taiwan (Oct 9), then the Phuket Finale Nov 30–Dec 3.

Bupa Padel 2026 — Saudi Arabia Corporate circuit continues: Al Khobar Sep 10–12, Riyadh Oct 1–3, then the Super Cup.

Portugal's Sofía and Pedro Araújo won the first mixed doubles title in Mediterranean Games history — and they're siblings. "Gold runs in the family," FIP wrote, and it was literal. Sofía barely had time to rest — Madrid P1 opens this week and she's seeded pair No. 5 with Marta Ortega. A brother-sister gold in a sport built on fixed duos doesn't happen twice.

Source: Padel FIP — Araujo siblings win Mixed

David Gala (Spain)

Two weeks ago, David Gala was a name in the draw. Today he's a champion of history: with José Antonio Diestro, he won the first men's padel gold at a multi-sport Games.

Gala was the steady hand Spain needed. In the semi-finals he and Diestro broke the Deus brothers at 5-5 in both sets — cold, decisive tennis. In the final, against a roaring Italian crowd, they held firm through two tiebreak-level sets.

He already knew how to win in Spain's colours. With Diestro, he took the FIP Euro Padel Cup 2025 last October.

The pair heads home with gold and a new label: first-time champions. For Gala, the biggest stages of the season — Madrid, Paris, the Finals — are still ahead.

Padel's "getting back with your ex" era is a sign the transfer market has run out of ideas.

Three of the summer's flagship pairings are reunions: Paquito/Di Nenno, Leal/Guerrero, and now Yanguas/Nieto, who fell to Stupaczuk/Sanz — the pair they broke up to form — in Belgrade's final. Reunions are safe ranking bets. They're also an admission that the market can't mint new rivalries faster than it breaks old ones.

The summer window reshuffled nearly 30 pairs, and the biggest headlines are still reruns. Padel's next era needs fresh partnerships at the top, not nostalgia tours. Agree? Hit reply.

1M+ — Padel players in the UK in 2026, up from 15,000 in 2019. That's 66x growth in seven years, across 1,825 courts and 551 venues. The UK stopped being an emerging market — it's a main one.

Source: Swindon24 via LTA figures

Technology is changing how players compete, train, and book courts. AI video tools return shot-by-shot feedback within minutes, racket sensors classify your strikes in real time, and club cameras record every match automatically. FIP counts the sport in more than 150 countries, more than 35 million players, and more than 77,300 courts.

Last updated: August 2026 · Prices and availability verified at time of writing.

The quickest way padel has changed: AI coaching tools

You used to wait days for a coach to review a match. Today you upload the video and get AI feedback in minutes. Tools like Padel AI score all four players from a single upload and run on iOS and Android.

Padel AI grades six shot categories. It maps each score to Playtomic's 1.0–7.0 skill scale. That scale already works as the common language across the sport's booking infrastructure.

The demand makes sense. FIP counts more than 35 million players worldwide. Each one of them is a potential user of this coaching layer.

The feedback loops stay tight. Six categories capture the core of the game, from smashes to lobs. A player sees a real weak spot instead of a vague review.

Smart cameras record every point automatically

Clubs now install camera systems that handle the recording. Clutch serves more than 125 clubs worldwide and delivers automated match recording, instant highlights, player analytics, and a club dashboard. GameTraq offers the same class of features.

A Swedish camera setup tracks all four players with 4K cameras. It measures metres run, shot counts, error rates, and movement. Coaches pull those numbers straight off the club's dashboard after a session.

Members skip the phone-on-a-fence setup. Every point gets captured, so players review a full match without asking anyone to film it. The highlights compile themselves.

A single 4K system monitors four players at once. The club gains a library of usable footage without hiring staff to film. Players share those clips, which markets the club for free.

Racket-mounted sensors track your shots in real time

A 12-gram sensor lives in your racket's buttcap and links to an app over Bluetooth. Padelplay detects and classifies forehands, backhands, volleys, smashes, bandejas, lobs, and slices. It hits roughly 85% shot-classification accuracy.

The app breaks a session into shots per stroke type. You see which stroke falls apart under pressure. Coaches use those same numbers to plan the next training block.

The sensor also flags stroke balance. A player who leans on the smash sees that ratio on screen. Frequency data tells the story that feel alone cannot.

What's happening inside the racket and on the court

Inside the racket, adjustable balance defines 2026. Adidas puts up to 11.2g of removable plates across head and grip on the Metalbone 2026, using its Weight & Balance System. Nox adds a bridge counterweight, its Weight Balancer, to the AT10.

On the court, materials set the standard. Pro turf blends PE and PP fibres with silica sand and rubber granules to FIP specs. Pro courts use 12mm tempered glass walls, budget builds drop to 10mm, and a panoramic all-glass perimeter marks the premium tier.

Advanced courts integrate further. They embed cameras, add intelligent LED lighting, and tie access doors to bookings. LED scoring displays round out the package.

Booking apps and the digital club

Playtomic runs the de-facto global booking infrastructure. Millions of players book through it across thousands of venues, and its 1.0–7.0 scale unifies matchmaking. MATCHi and Playless provide alternatives in regional markets.

Club-management suites track the business side. They monitor utilisation, maintenance, and revenue per court hour. That data shapes pricing and court allocation.

Open-match formats fill slots that would sit empty. A player books a game with strangers at a chosen skill level. This keeps courts fuller and clubs earning.

What's coming next in padel tech

Broadcast already matches established racket sports. Premier Padel uses multi-camera infrastructure, slow-mo analysis, player-tracking overlays, and direct streaming to social channels. Enclosed glass courts make the sport TV-friendly.

Red Bull TV streams all 26 Premier Padel stops live in 2026, from quarter-finals to finals. The next court generation connects every layer. Cameras, lighting, scoring, and booking will share one digital backbone.

Weights shift too. The adjustable-balance trend moves rackets toward custom setups. Sensors and apps just gave players a way to measure whether those changes work.

Spain still leads the wave. FIP counts about 5 million players and roughly 17,300 courts there, close to half of Europe's fans. Those courts modernise first, and the tech follows.

Quick Answer

The coaches behind the world's best players are Gustavo Pratto, Jorge Martínez, Agustín Gómez Silingo, Carlos Pozzoni and Rodri Ovide. Pratto runs the pair of Arturo Coello and Agustín Tapia. Jorge Martínez leads Madrid's M3 Academy and its Galán and Chingotto project. This guide breaks down who trains the rest of the FIP top 10.

Last updated: August 2026 · ranks and pairings verified at time of writing.

Why a Coach's Project Matters

A top-level coach runs something close to a small company. The best projects carry a bench of second players, a physical coach, a sports psychologist and a physiotherapist. That structure is the difference between a good season and a dominant one.

Top pairs also train in separate bases. Coello and Tapia do not share a city year-round, so the staff pieces the plan together. They meet before tournaments, run sessions and trust the system built between events. The coach keeps it together even when the pair is apart.

FIP Men's Top 10 (as of 24 August 2026)

Gustavo Pratto — the architect of the world's best

Arturo Coello and Agustín Tapia share the FIP number one, and Gustavo Pratto coaches them both. That makes him the most consequential name in the sport. His staff also includes Martín Canali, who works directly with Tapia as his personal coach.

Pratto's work goes beyond tactics. Coello and Tapia play a relentless offensive game, and Pratto's job is to let them attack with confidence. He has been the steady hand behind their rise through recent seasons. When people list the world's best, Pratto is the coach behind that result.

Jorge Martínez — M3 Academy

Jorge Martínez fronts Madrid's M3 Academy, a club that just turned 20 years old. He coaches Alejandro Galán and Federico Chingotto, who share the number three spot on the FIP list. The academy has become one of Spain's biggest talent factories.

Martínez's bond with Galán runs deep. He gave a teenage Alejandro a scholarship, and Galán has said the bet changed his life. "He bet on me, he changed me," Galán told the press. That trust turned into a pair that reached the top of the rankings.

M3 also trains women's stars, including Bea González and Delfi Brea. The academy's CEO is David Morales, the founder of Playtomic. So the project mixes titles with a real business behind it.

Agustín Gómez Silingo — Diagonal Academy

Agustín Gómez Silingo works with Juan Lebrón and Leandro Augsburger from Barcelona's Diagonal Academy. He shares the project with Juan Manuel Rodríguez. Together they hold together a pair that sits fifth and sixth on the FIP list.

Silingo knows the tour from the inside. He retired from the professional circuit around two years ago after a long career. That experience earns him respect in the locker room.

The Diagonal Academy runs as a full base in Barcelona. Away from the tour, Silingo shapes young talent there. It is a project built to last, not a short-term booking.

Carlos Pozzoni — the long haul

Carlos Pozzoni has coached Franco Stupaczuk for ten years. That longevity is rare in a sport full of sudden partner switches. He is known for a blunt personality and direct opinions, which helps explain why the pair has stayed together.

Stupaczuk sits at number seven on the FIP list. The team Pozzoni built around him keeps him sharp and disciplined. Ten years in, few coaches can say they have guided the same player for that long.

Rodri Ovide — the academy man

Rodrigo "Rodri" Ovide coaches Paquito Navarro, the FIP number nine whose full name is Francisco Navarro. In 2026 Ovide also took over the technical direction of the Rafa Nadal Academy padel program. That puts him at the head of a major project in Mallorca.

Ovide has a long history at the top. He has previously coached Gemma Triay, Martín Di Nenno, Álex Ruiz and Alejandra Salazar. That list shows he can adapt to very different styles of play.

Now he combines his academy role with Navarro's season. Between the two, he has become one of the most requested coaches in the sport.

The August 2026 Reshuffle

Padel's partner market moves fast. In August 2026 Franco Stupaczuk and Miguel Yanguas decided to split. Yanguas sits at number eight on the FIP list, so the breakup shook things up. Stupaczuk then paired up with Jon Sanz.

Yanguas reunited with an old teammate. He joined up again with Jorge "Coki" Nieto, ranked number ten. For both of them, the Madrid P1 tournament (August 29 to September 6) is the first real test of the new pairings.

The shuffle reshapes the ranking ahead of the season's big months. Pratto's number ones sit on stable ground. Everyone behind them now has a fresh reason to fight.

Sources

• MARCA
• Padel Addict
• Red Bull (ES)
• Relevo
• Mundo Deportivo
• Forbes ES
• FIP (International Padel Federation)

Quick Answer

Playing padel twice a week costs about €35-60 per month in Spain, $75-150 in the United States, and £85-160 in the UK (London rates). The gap comes almost entirely from court hire: a 90-minute court split four ways runs €3-6.50 per player at a Valencia club, around $9-16 in Miami or New York, and £11-17 at London peak times. Everything else, including balls, gear amortization and federation fees, adds less than €20 a month.

Last updated: August 2026 · Prices and availability verified at time of writing.

What the Numbers Say

Playtomic, the booking platform with the largest court-rental dataset in the sport, publishes country-level pricing with PwC. Its latest figures rank the UK as the most expensive padel market in the world. An average classic reservation there costs €52 per hour against a global average of €28. Open-match formats in Britain climb to €65 per hour (Padel Magazine, August 2025).

The sport itself keeps growing. Playtomic and PwC count 58,300 courts, nearly 20,000 clubs and 19.4 million players worldwide, with projections of 91,000 courts by 2028 (Playtomic Global Padel Report). More courts usually means more competition on price.

In mature markets like Spain, that has kept rates low. In supply-starved markets like the UK and coastal US cities, it has not.

Court Hire: The Cost That Decides Everything

Court rental makes up 80% or more of a regular player's monthly spend, so start there. Prices below are for a full court per hour unless stated, and padel is always doubles, so divide by four for your share.

Spain

Spanish clubs stay cheap because supply is deep and competition fierce. SUMA Padel Club in Valencia charges €12 for an outdoor court on weekday mornings and €20 on weekday evenings for a 90-minute session, which works out at €3-5 per player. Indoor courts there run €15-26 per 90 minutes. Madrid and Barcelona carry a city premium: industry analysis puts a typical court hour around €24, with big-city venues charging more (Pistas-Pádel.es, 2025).

United States

PadelDrops' 2026 cost guide tracks hourly rates across major US markets: $35-60 per hour in Miami, $40-65 in New York, and $25-50 in Houston or Dallas. Phoenix is the cheapest major market at $20-45. Split four ways, that is $6-16 per person per session depending on city and time slot.

United Kingdom

London spans everything from community courts to premium venues. Comparison site Playskan lists 81+ London clubs ranging from £15 per session at Hollybush Padel up to £100 at Padium Canary Wharf. A realistic evening-peak indoor average sits near £45 per hour (UK Padel Guide, 2026), so budget £11-17 each when sharing. Regional UK clubs cost far less, often £5-10 per person off-peak.

Club Memberships: Usually Optional

Spain barely uses memberships for casual play. You book through Playtomic, pay per session, and done. The one recurring fee worth knowing is the Federación Española de Pádel licence at €46 per year if you want to enter ranked tournaments.

In the UK, membership is cheap outside London. Wetherby Padel Club, which books through the LTA's Clubspark platform, charges £90 per year, and UK Padel charges £130 annually across its clubs for discounted court rates. In London, mid-tier monthly plans with court-time allowances run £60-100, while fully unlimited memberships reach £180 (UK Padel Guide).

US facilities sit in another league: typical memberships run $100-400 per month, and premium private clubs in Miami, New York and Los Angeles exceed $500 (PadelDrops). That only breaks even at two or more weekly sessions.

Balls, Rackets and the Small Stuff

A tube of three padel balls costs $5-8 and lasts one to two casual sessions before the pressure goes (PadelDrops). Shared between four players, balls add $2-4 per person per month at two sessions a week.

Rackets are a one-off, not a monthly drain. Entry-level models from brands like Kuikma at Decathlon start around $50-70, solid intermediates run $100-180, and pro-level carbon frames hit $200-350 (PadelDrops). Spread a $150 racket over two years of twice-weekly play and it costs about $3 a month. Add shoes every year or two and realistic gear amortization lands near $5-10 monthly.

Monthly Budget Compared (Two Sessions a Week)

Figures are per person, assuming eight 90-minute sessions a month with court fees split four ways. Conversions between £, $ and € are approximate.

Why the ranges are wide: peak-hour premiums add 30-50% over off-peak, indoor courts cost more than outdoor, and city venues charge more than regional ones. An off-peak morning player in Dallas spends less than a prime-time player anywhere in London.

Five Ways to Pay Less

1. Book mornings. Off-peak slots cost 30-50% less in every market studied. Retired, self-employed or flexible schedule? This single change halves most bills.
2. Always fill the fourth spot. Court fees divided by four versus three change your per-session cost immediately. Open-match formats on Playtomic solve this for you.
3. Play municipal and community courts. Spanish public sports centres and UK council-backed venues undercut private clubs, sometimes dramatically.
4. Delay the gear upgrade. A $60 starter racket plays fine for your first year. PadelDrops recommends waiting six months of regular play before buying premium.
5. Do the membership math before joining. At one session a week, pay-per-play wins nearly everywhere. Memberships only make sense from two sessions a week onward.

The bottom line: padel can be a €40-a-month hobby or a £150 one. Where you live decides the baseline, but when you book decides most of the rest.

From August 22 to 28, the Mediterranean Games in Taranto, Italy will host padel's first-ever appearance. Eighty-eight athletes from 18 nations. Three medal events: men's doubles, women's doubles, mixed doubles. Purpose-built courts at Parco del Mediterraneo Salinella.

This is not a showcase or exhibition. These are real medals, real national teams, and real Olympic pathway implications.

Spain is sending a squad designed to dominate. Former world #1s Lucía Sainz and Patty Llaguno lead the women's side. Rising star David Gala — world #33, born in 2006, European Games gold medallist in Krakow 2023 — leads the men alongside Pol Hernández and Guille Collado.

Italy will have the crowd. Carolina Orsi (world #31), breakout star Giulia Dal Pozzo (world #30, just 21), and Marco Cassetta carry the home nation's hopes. Portugal and France are genuine medal threats, with the Araujo and Deus siblings headlining the Portuguese squad.

Then there is the bigger picture. The FIP laid it out plainly this week: Taranto is not a standalone moment. It is stop one of five multi-sport games appearances in the next 16 months. After Italy come four more stops. South American Games in Santa Fe (September). Asian Games in Nagoya (September–October). Asian Indoor Games in Riyadh (December). European Games in Istanbul (2027).

In June 2026, the IOC changed its charter. Individual disciplines — not entire sports — will be evaluated for Olympic inclusion from Brisbane 2032. Padel now has a direct pathway and five multi-sport stages to prove it belongs.

Source: Padel FIP — Padel makes its debut at the Mediterranean Games, Padel FIP — Padel travels in the medal zone

• Summer transfer window complete — 30+ new pairs for Madrid. The biggest swap: Franco Stupaczuk teams with Jon Sanz (5th seeds), while Mike Yanguas reunites with Coki Nieto for round three (4th seeds). Only 21 ranking points separate them. On the women's side, Vero Virseda split from Jimena Velasco after just two tournaments and joins Martina Fassio (9th seeds). Over 30 new pairs will debut when the tour resumes. (elneverazo, Mundo Deportivo)

• Padel takes over the Sydney Opera House. A red padel court on the Opera House's Northern Broadwalk. Ash Barty, Pat Rafter, and Casey Dellacqua on one side. Spanish five-time world #1 Alejandra Salazar on the other. UBS as presenting partner, Waldorf Astoria debuting its global Racquet Club concept. Juan Martín Díaz, Martín Di Nenno, and Maxi Sánchez played exhibition matches. Padel just produced its most iconic image of 2026. (Mediaweek)

• PPL lands in LA — CNBC broadcasts championship. The Pro Padel League's second stop brought all 10 teams to Barker Hangar in Santa Monica (Aug 13–16). Tyler Posey and Alexis Knapp showed up courtside. Sunday's "Podium Day" final aired nationally on CNBC — part of a 5-event broadcast deal. Season continues to Playa del Carmen (Sep), Guadalajara (Nov), then Miami Finals (Dec). (Padel Addict)

• Marketing Brew says padel is "making a racket" in US sponsorships. The business publication profiled padel's rising US sponsorship ecosystem. Tom Holland's NA beer brand Bero hosted celebrity padel events. The PPL has 7 multi-year partners including Adidas and Franklin. Playtomic/PwC data: 8,000+ new courts globally in 2025, 300+ in the US. The piece frames padel as following pickleball's trajectory but with premium positioning. (Marketing Brew)

• Caliber tokenizes padel real estate on the Nasdaq. Listed alternative asset manager Caliber (CWD) chose its PURE Pickleball & Padel facility in Scottsdale as the first tokenized real estate offering on its platform. Part of a $100M managed assets program. When a Nasdaq company picks padel courts as its blockchain RE debut, the asset class is maturing fast. (GlobeNewswire)

No Premier Padel tournament this week. The tour is on its three-week summer break between the London P1 (August 9) and the Madrid P1 (August 29 – September 6).

Pro Padel League — Los Angeles (Aug 13–16) PPL Season Stop 2 at Barker Hangar, Santa Monica. Championship results aired on CNBC.

Mediterranean Games Padel — August 22–28, Taranto, Italy

Padel's multi-sport debut. Men's doubles, women's doubles, and mixed doubles across seven days. Spain, Italy, Portugal, and France are the medal favorites. Watch for David Gala (Spain) and Giulia Dal Pozzo (Italy) as the breakout names.

Madrid Premier Padel P1 — August 29 – September 6, Movistar Arena

The season's second half begins in the Spanish capital. The transfer window headline: Stupaczuk/Sanz vs Yanguas/Nieto — who won the trade? Calvo/Fernández return as London champions. Coello/Tapia hunt title #9 with an eight-title lead. Over 30 new pairs debut. Expect broadcast details closer to the event on Premier Padel channels.

The Mediterranean Games started in 1951 in Alexandria, Egypt, inspired by the Olympic movement. Padel has waited 75 years for its spot in the competition. Taranto will also host the mixed doubles format — a rarity in professional padel, where most events feature only men’s and women’s draws. National pride adds a layer the tour circuit simply cannot replicate.

David Gala (Spain, world #33)

Born in 2006. Twenty years old. Already a European Games gold medallist.

Gala won team gold for Spain in Krakow at the 2023 European Games and led them to the 2025 FIP Euro Padel Cup title. On the Premier Padel circuit he has been climbing steadily, cracking the top 35 while most players his age are still in junior events.

In Taranto he will lead Spain’s men’s team alongside Pol Hernández and Guille Collado. If Spain takes gold, Gala will be the face of padel's Olympic generation — the player who proved the sport can produce stars at multi-sport games, not just on its own tour.

Padel's constant partner carousel is becoming its version of free agency chaos, and fans should be worried.

Thirty-plus new pairs for Madrid P1. Stupaczuk on his third partnership in two seasons. Virseda splitting after two tournaments. The sport sells itself on pair chemistry, but half the draw reshuffles every summer. Tennis never had this problem because individual identity was the product. Padel needs to decide: is the pair the brand, or is the player?

Right now, the sport asks fans to invest in partnerships that last six months. That is not a rivalry culture. That is a dating app.

Agree? Hit reply.

88 — Athletes from 18 nations who will compete when padel makes its historic Mediterranean Games debut in Taranto next week. Three medal events. One Olympic dream.

Source: Padel FIP

Padel etiquette comes down to ten unwritten rules: never enter or cross a court mid-rally; return a neighbor's ball with a gentle feed once their point ends; switch ends on odd games by walking around the net, not over it; tap palas with your partner after points; raise a hand to apologize for net cords and lucky winners; never smash at faces in social games; call your own lines honestly and replay genuine disputes; shout "mine" or "yours" on ambiguous balls; don't celebrate opponents' errors; and respect the booking clock. None of them appear in the official rulebook — all of them decide whether you get invited back.

Last updated: August 2026 · Conventions verified against club practice and the official FIP rules.

Why Padel Has a Second Rulebook

Padel is a social sport before it is a competitive one. Most matches happen at clubs, between people who met through an app or a group chat, on courts booked in 60- or 90-minute slots with the next four players watching you finish. That environment produced a code of conduct that Red Bull's etiquette guide calls the sport's "unspoken standards" — rules nobody writes down and everybody enforces.

Break the official rules and you lose a point. Break these and you lose invitations.

The Ten Unwritten Rules

1. Never enter a court mid-rally

The doors at the back of a padel court open onto live play. Opening one mid-point — to retrieve a ball, to deliver water, to start your booking — kills the rally and occasionally causes a collision. Wait for the point to end, make eye contact, then move.

2. Return the neighbor's ball like an adult

A ball from the next court gets returned when their rally finishes, with a soft feed aimed at a player's hands. Not a full-swing clearance over the fence in a random direction. And the reverse: if your ball rolls into their court, ask for it — walking uninvited into someone else's game is the fastest way to become club-famous for the wrong reason.

3. Switch ends on odd games — through the doors

The official rule: teams change ends whenever the game count adds up to an odd number — after game 1, 3, 5, and so on. The unwritten part is how: walk around the net through the doors. Climbing over the net or squeezing across the net post damages the equipment and looks ridiculous in equal measure.

4. Tap palas with your partner

After a won point, after a lost point, after your partner buries a sitter into the net: pala tap. The gesture — carbon quietly clicking on carbon — says "still a team." All four players then meet at the net after the final point for taps or fist bumps. Pros on Premier Padel do it after every single point; a 20x10 court is too small a space to sulk in.

5. Apologize for net cords

When your shot clips the tape and dribbles dead on the other side, raise your pala or say a quick "sorry." Everyone knows you're not sorry. That's not the test. The gesture separates "I got lucky" from "I meant that," and skipping it reads as claiming credit for a coin flip.

6. No smashing at faces

Here is the rule beginners most need to hear: hitting an opponent with the ball is a legal way to win a point — and in social padel, aiming at someone's face or body from two meters away is unacceptable anyway. The amateur code says win with placement: smash toward the glass, the fence, the gaps, or go for the by-three or by-four angles. Save the body shot for tournaments where everyone signed up for it — and even then, expect exactly zero new friends.

7. Call your own lines, replay real disputes

Amateur padel has no umpire. Each team calls the lines on its own side, honestly, with the benefit of the doubt going to the opponent. When a call is genuinely disputed, the standard convention is simple: replay the point. Arguing over a line call in a Tuesday-night social match is a bigger loss than the point ever was.

8. Say "mine" or "yours" — every time

Every ball down the middle belongs to somebody, and the time to decide is before both of you swing. One word prevents the collision, the double-swing, and the silent blame that follows. It's the cheapest insurance in the sport, and it's also the fix for one of the most common beginner mistakes: assuming your partner has it.

9. Celebrate your winners, not their errors

A fist pump for your own vibora winner: great. A "vamos!" when a beginner double-faults: you've just guaranteed nobody enjoys the next 40 minutes. The distinction is invisible in a highlights reel and enormous on a Tuesday night court.

10. Respect the clock

Club courts run on tight bookings. Arrive early enough to warm up inside your slot, and when your time ends, gather balls and leave — the four players at the door paid for the minutes you're stealing. Overrunning a booking is the etiquette violation clubs actually track.

The One-Line Version

If you remember nothing else: padel etiquette is playing like you want these three people — and the four on the next court — to book with you again next week. That's the entire code. The other ten rules are just implementation details.

New to the sport? Start with our beginner rules guide for the official rulebook, then this one for everything the rulebook won't tell you.

Martina Calvo and Claudia Fernández beat world #1s Gemma Triay and Delfi Brea 7-5, 6-3 in the first London Premier Padel P1 final. Second tournament together. First title. And a record that will take years to touch.

Calvo is 18 years, 1 month and 4 days old. That makes her the youngest Premier Padel champion ever, beating Andrea Ustero's Bordeaux mark by three weeks. Together, Calvo and Fernández are also the youngest winning pair in the professional era — combined age 38 years, 6 months and 21 days.

They did not sneak in through a soft draw. In the semis they beat world #2s Bea González and Paula Josemaría 6-2, 6-4. In the final they took the first set 7-5, raced to 5-0 in the second, and closed 6-3 after 1 hour 45 minutes at Olympia.

Triay and Brea had every right to feel drained. A day earlier they needed three hours to survive Ari Sánchez and Andrea Ustero. Experience got them through Pretoria. In London, youth refused to blink.

On the men's side, Arturo Coello and Agustín Tapia answered their Pretoria shock the only way dynasties do. One week after their 27-final streak ended, they beat Ale Galán and Fede Chingotto 6-3, 5-7, 7-5 in the Superclásico. Title number eight of 2026. The race lead goes into the summer break with them.

Around 20,000 fans packed Olympia for Britain's first Premier Padel event. The UK did not host a novelty. It hosted a statement week.

Source: Premier Padel — London champions crowned, Mundo Deportivo, Padel Addict — men's final

• Stupaczuk ends second spell with Yanguas. Franco Stupaczuk confirmed on Instagram that he and Mike Yanguas are splitting again. Context: Málaga quarterfinal exit, Pretoria withdrawal, then a first-round London loss as the #4 seeds. No new partners named. The pairing market opens into Madrid. (Actu Padel, Padel Addict)

• UK padel hits 1 million players. When the LTA took padel under its wing, Britain had 69 courts. End of 2025: 1,553 courts across 559 clubs. Player base: 400,000 in 2024, 860,000 by end-2025, past one million in 2026. Search interest up 121% year on year — fastest in Europe. London P1 was the status check. (Padel Addict)

• Medina Murphy gives Olympia its home roar. GB No.1 Christian Medina Murphy and Alberto García Jiménez opened Centre Court with a 6-2, 6-2 win over Gutiérrez/Giuliani. He was the last Brit standing before falling in the round of 32. For one night, the home crowd had its moment. (Premier Padel)

• Joma and Padel Nuestro bet on Britain. Joma became official footwear partner of the London P1. Specialist retailer Padel Nuestro opened its first UK store in Manchester. Courts built the boom. Kit brands and retail are now chasing it. (Actu Padel)

• Calvo/Fernández also beat the world #2s — again. Before the final, they handled González/Josemaría 6-2, 6-4. That is two straight semis against the #2 pair after Pretoria. This is no longer a hot streak. It is a hierarchy problem. (Premier Padel)

London Premier Padel P1 — Olympia, London

Men's Draw:

• 🥇 Coello / Tapia def. Galán / Chingotto: 6-3, 5-7, 7-5
• SF: Coello / Tapia def. Navarro / Di Nenno: 6-3, 6-2
• SF: Galán / Chingotto def. Lebrón / Augsburger: 7-6(3), 6-3

Women's Draw:

• 🥇 Fernández / Calvo def. Triay / Brea: 7-5, 6-3
• SF: Fernández / Calvo def. González / Josemaría: 6-2, 6-4
• SF: Triay / Brea def. Sánchez / Ustero: 7-6(4), 5-7, 6-3 (~3h)

Summer break — then Madrid Premier Padel P1 (August 28 – September 5)

Three weeks off. Then the tour resumes in Madrid.

Storylines to watch:

• Can Calvo/Fernández prove London was a launch, not a peak?
• Who partners Stupaczuk and Yanguas after the split?
• Does Galán/Chingotto close the gap on Coello/Tapia after title #8 for the #1s?

How to watch details usually land closer to the event on Premier Padel channels and local rights holders.

Olympia in Kensington is nearly 140 years old. It reopened in June after a £1.3 billion redevelopment, with a Centre Court holding about 4,000 fans. Premier Padel's first UK title was decided in a building that once hosted everything from exhibitions to concerts — now bandejas under the same roof.

Martina Calvo (Spain)

Eighteen. From Navarra. Already in the record books.

Calvo plays with constant forward energy — the kind of pressure that makes veteran pairs rush. Spanish media already call her a force of nature. In London she was the final's clear driver, taking the initiative early and dragging Claudia Fernández with her.

Off court she is still the kid whose parents and brother were in the stands as she closed out the world #1s. On court she is the youngest Premier Padel champion ever. Madrid will show whether the rest of the tour has an answer.

Stop calling Calvo and Fernández a "project pair."

Two tournaments. One final. One title. Wins over the world #2s and world #1s. That is not potential. That is a third pole on the women's tour, and everyone should treat them as title favorites from Madrid onward.

If the top pairs still plan for "experience will sort it out," they will lose again. Youth just proved it can finish.

Agree? Hit reply.

18 — Years, 1 month and 4 days. Martina Calvo's age when she became the youngest Premier Padel champion in history.

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© 2026 The Padel Brief | thepadelbrief.com

The cheapest way to watch Premier Padel in 2026 is free: Red Bull TV streams the quarter-finals, semi-finals, and finals of every tournament at no cost, and the official Premier Padel YouTube channel carries the earlier rounds. For full local coverage, the main broadcasters are Movistar Plus+ (Spain), Canal+ (France), Sky/SuperTennis (Italy), beIN Sports (MENA, Turkey, Asia-Pacific, North America), Tennis Channel (select US events), and Disney+/ESPN (Latin America). The season runs 26 tournaments from February 9 to December 13, ending at the Barcelona Finals.

Last updated: August 2026 · Broadcasters and availability verified at time of writing.

The Two Free Options Everyone Should Know

Start here before paying for anything.

1. Red Bull TV — quarter-finals to finals, free

Red Bull TV covers every stop of the Qatar Airways Premier Padel Tour in 2026. From the quarter-finals on, matches stream free — no subscription, no ads, no account. It runs in any browser and has apps for iOS, Android, and most smart TVs.

One underrated feature: the player lets you switch commentary languages manually, so you can watch with Spanish commentary from anywhere. For a sport whose best analysts speak Spanish, that matters.

2. Premier Padel on YouTube — everything before the quarters

The official Premier Padel YouTube channel streams qualifying and early-round matches free, plus highlights and press conferences. In countries where broadcast rights haven't been sold, the channel carries full events — the whole tournament, not just scraps.

Between the two, you can follow the entire season without spending a cent. Paid broadcasters add production polish, studio shows, and every court — but they're optional, not required.

Country-by-Country Guide

Rights holders for the 2026 season:

Premier Padel says its broadcast agreements now reach more than 190 territories. If your country isn't listed above, you're in the "everywhere else" row — which honestly is not a bad place to be, since it means everything is free.

No dedicated deal is listed for the UK in 2026, so British fans use the same free route: Red Bull TV from the quarters, YouTube before that.

Which Rounds Stream Where

The split trips up new fans, so here it is in one place:

1. Qualifying + early rounds (Mon–Thu): Premier Padel YouTube channel, free
2. Quarter-finals, semi-finals, finals (Fri–Sun): Red Bull TV, free — plus your local broadcaster
3. Every round, every court: your local paid broadcaster (Movistar, beIN, Canal+, Sky), where available

The rhythm of a tournament week matters too. Early rounds run all day across multiple courts. From the quarters, everything moves to the center court and evening sessions — that's when the free Red Bull TV stream kicks in.

What's Left of the 2026 Season

The 2026 calendar packs 26 tournaments into 18 countries, and the second half of the season is loaded: the Paris Major at Roland-Garros, the Acapulco Major, and the season-ending Premier Padel Finals in Barcelona on December 13. Prize pools at Majors reach €525,000, and the racing to qualify for Barcelona makes every autumn P1 count.

For the full schedule, tiers, and how the ranking race works, read our Premier Padel 2026 tour guide.

Our Honest Take

Padel's TV setup is better than most fans think and worse than the sport deserves. Free quarter-finals onward on Red Bull TV beats what tennis offers — try watching an ATP quarter-final for free. But splitting early rounds to YouTube and scattering national rights across eight broadcasters means casual fans never build the habit of one destination. Until Premier Padel gets its own single app or a mainstream global partner, bookmark two tabs: Red Bull TV for the weekend, YouTube for the rest.

Professional padel pairs break up constantly because the system makes splitting cheap and staying expensive. Ranking points belong to each individual player, not the pair, so a divorce costs nothing on paper. There are no binding contracts, the calendar packs more than 20 tournaments into a season, and two bad results are enough to start the rumors. Even the greatest pairs prove it: Alejandro Galán and Juan Lebrón split in March 2024 after 33 titles, and Ari Sánchez and Paula Josemaría — the winningest pair in padel history with 44 titles — said goodbye at the end of 2025.

Last updated: August 2026 · Results and rankings verified at time of writing.

Padel's Permanent Transfer Window

Padel is the only major racket sport where the team matters more than the player — and where teams dissolve like sugar in coffee. Padel Magazine calls it a "permanent transfer window": a pair loses two quarterfinals, and the split rumors write themselves.

The 2026 season made the point before it even started. Lebrón–Stupaczuk and Sanz–Navarro dissolved over the winter, and a wave of new projects launched: Stupaczuk with Yanguas, Lebrón with young Leo Augsburger, Paquito Navarro with Fran Guerrero. By mid-season, several of those new pairs — Navarro–Guerrero, Di Nenno–Momo González, Lijó–Arce — had already dissolved or restructured. Some marriages didn't survive six months.

So why does this keep happening? Four structural reasons.

Reason 1: Your Points Travel With You

This is the big one. The FIP ranking — the ranking that governs Premier Padel entry — is individual. Each player's 22 best results over a rolling 52-week window count toward their personal total. Both members of a pair earn identical points at every event.

Leave your partner tomorrow and you keep every point you earned together. Your new pair's seeding simply combines your ranking with your new partner's. In football, a transfer costs millions. In padel, it costs a phone call.

That design has a logic — it protects players whose partners get injured. But it also removes the single biggest deterrent to splitting up.

Reason 2: No Contracts, Just Promises

Padel pairs are held together by verbal agreements. No transfer fees, no buyout clauses, no multi-year deals between the players themselves. A pairing lasts exactly as long as both players want it to — or as long as neither gets a better offer.

That's how splits happen mid-season with two days' notice. When Galán decided he was done with Lebrón in Doha, the new pair with Chingotto was confirmed within days. The talks had clearly started before the divorce was announced. In padel, everyone is always slightly on the market.

Reason 3: Two Egos, Twenty Square Meters Each

A padel pair is a marriage played out in public, on a 20x10 court, under pressure, every week. Roles create friction: someone has to take the smash on the ball down the middle, someone has to eat more balls in defense, someone's mistakes get magnified in the loss.

The Galán–Lebrón saga is the case study. Four seasons, 33 titles, two world No. 1s — and rising tension through a difficult 2023, according to Padel Magazine's reconstruction. The breaking point came at the 2024 Qatar Major: at 3-3 in the third set, a frustrated Lebrón threw a ball close to Mike Yanguas' face, triggering an altercation between the teams. Galán announced the split two days later.

Reason 4: The Calendar Is a Pressure Cooker

Premier Padel runs more than 20 tournaments a year across four continents. Same flights, same hotels, same practice courts, same dinner table — with the one person whose mistakes can cost you your season. There is no bench, no rotation, no substitute. Just you two.

Sánchez and Josemaría named this directly. When they announced their separation after five years and 44 titles — the most decorated pair the sport has seen — they spoke of a "fantastic journey, full of joys and also difficult moments." The tour grind wears down even pairs that win almost everything. Losses in the Dubai semifinals and the Acapulco round of 16 confirmed the project had lost its edge, and both moved on: Sánchez to Andrea Ustero, Josemaría to Bea González.

Meanwhile, veterans Alejandra Salazar and Alejandra Alonso reunited for what they called a "Last Dance" — proof that in padel, even goodbyes get sequels.

The Exception That Proves the Rule

One pair makes the chaos look optional: Arturo Coello and Agustín Tapia. They announced their partnership on 27 December 2022 and never looked back — more than 30 titles together, the No. 1 pair in 2023, 2024, and 2025, and 26 consecutive finals as of July 2026.

Their secret is the same list in reverse: complementary roles with no overlap, results that never dipped long enough for doubt to creep in, and two personalities that don't compete for the same oxygen. Winning fixes most relationships. Winning everything fixes all of them.

What This Means for Fans

Don't get too attached to any pairing — and don't mourn the splits either. The constant reshuffling is part of what makes padel compulsively watchable: every divorce creates two new storylines, every new pair is an experiment with a countdown timer, and every reunion final (Galán vs. Lebrón, Sánchez vs. Josemaría) carries soap-opera weight that tennis can't match.

Our take: the individual points system won't change, so neither will the merry-go-round. Learn to love it. The drama is the product.

The world #1 pair Arturo Coello and Agustín Tapia fell 7-5, 7-5 in the semifinals. It was their first failure to reach a final since May 2025. Leal and Guerrero didn't just beat them. They outplayed them in straight sets in front of a stunned SunBet Arena.

One night earlier, Leal and Guerrero saved seven match points against Juan Lebrón and Leo Augsburger in the quarterfinals. The deciding tiebreak went 13-11. Fullview SA called it "the match of the year."

By the time they faced Coello and Tapia, fear was no longer a factor.

Ale Galán and Fede Chingotto took full advantage. In the final, they beat Leal and Guerrero 6-2, 5-7, 7-6(7) in a two-hour battle that La Nación called "the best final of the season." It was their sixth title of 2026 and first since Buenos Aires, a result that tightens the rankings race at the top.

The women's final matched the drama beat for beat. Gemma Triay and Delfi Brea defeated Claudia Fernández and Martina Calvo 6-2, 6-7, 7-6 in 2 hours and 53 minutes. Fifth title of the year for the world #1s.

But the real story was Fernández and Calvo. They were a brand-new pair playing their first tournament together. They reached the final and had championship point before Triay and Brea's experience pulled them through.

Pretoria delivered everything it promised: Africa's first Premier Padel event, two three-set finals, a broken dynasty, and a new pair to fear. The tour moves to London this week. Good luck topping that.

Source: Padel FIP — Titles for Brea-Triay and the 'Chingalan', Mundo Deportivo — Bombazo histórico en Pretoria

• BBC: "Padel is exploding across the UK. So why can courts cost £100 an hour?" The BBC published a major feature revealing around one million people in Britain now play padel regularly. It spotlighted celebrity backing (Beckham, Tom Holland, Andy Murray's £27m Game4Padel) and asked whether £100 courts make padel a sport for the wealthy. Drops perfectly ahead of London's first Premier Padel event this week. (BBC News)

• Compagnie des Alpes invests €20M in PadelCity for 33.9% stake. French leisure giant CDA (Parc Astérix, Walibi, major ski resorts) is betting big on padel. The deal gives them options to take majority control by 2028 and full acquisition by 2030. PadelCity targets 40 locations and 350 courts across Europe by end of 2026. Smart money is moving in. (Compagnie des Alpes)

• Yahoo Finance: "Padel is the new golf for young professionals." The US media wave continues. Yahoo Finance aired a segment with Pro Padel League CEO Michael Dorfman and Citizen Watch's Jeffrey Cohen (whose Frederique Constant brand sponsors PPL). US courts have grown from ~227 to ~1,000 in three years. The positioning shift from "next pickleball" to "new golf" is deliberate, and telling. (Yahoo Finance)

• Epic Padel buys Midlothian Tennis Club in Virginia. The tennis-to-padel conversion model keeps expanding. Northern Virginia-based Epic Padel acquired the Richmond-area club, adding to existing locations in Charlotte and a Milwaukee flagship opening this month. "Trying to avoid the mistake of over-building." A sign US operators are learning from pickleball's oversupply. (Richmond BizSense)

• BGT-winning farmer opens padel club in rural Dorset. Third-generation farmer Ben Chick (Hawkstone Farmers Choir, Britain's Got Talent winners) is launching "Chalk & Padel" in Sixpenny Handley to tackle rural isolation. Padel's story has been urban and premium. This is the counterpoint, and a damn good one. (BBC News)

Pretoria Premier Padel P1 — SunBet Arena, South Africa

Men's Draw:

• 🥇 Galán / Chingotto def. Leal / Guerrero: 6-2, 5-7, 7-6(7)
• SF: Leal / Guerrero def. Coello / Tapia: 7-5, 7-5
• QF highlight: Leal / Guerrero def. Lebrón / Augsburger: 6-7, 7-5, 7-6(13-11) (7 match points saved)

Women's Draw:

• 🥇 Triay / Brea def. Fernández / Calvo: 6-2, 6-7, 7-6 (2h 53min)
• SF: Fernández / Calvo def. González / Josemaría: 6-1, 6-4
• SF: Triay / Brea def. Salazar / Osoro: 6-2, 6-1

London Premier Padel P1 — August 4-9, Olympia, London

The UK's first-ever Premier Padel event. Qualifying starts today. Main draw from Wednesday.

Galán and Chingotto arrive with a title and full confidence. Coello and Tapia need a response. Can Fernández and Calvo prove Pretoria wasn't a one-off?

TNT Sports secured live UK broadcast rights. Decathlon is the Official Retail Partner. Twelve British wildcards, seven in the main draw, give home fans something to shout about.

How to watch: TNT Sports 4 (from R16), HBO Max (all matches), Premier Padel YouTube (early rounds).

The tiebreak that Leal and Guerrero saved in the Pretoria quarterfinals went to 13-11. Under Premier Padel rules, the deciding-set tiebreak has no cap. It's played until one pair leads by two points.

The longest recorded Premier Padel tiebreak went to 15-13. Pretoria came close to breaking that record.

Javi Leal (Spain, FIP Ranking: ~25th)

Before Pretoria, most casual fans couldn't pick Javi Leal out of a lineup. After it, he's impossible to forget.

The 25-year-old from Málaga plays the left side with a deceptive mix of touch and power. His bandeja is textbook, and his volleys in transition are among the cleanest on tour.

Paired with Fran Guerrero, he reached his first P1 final after saving seven match points and ending the biggest winning streak in the sport.

Off court, Leal is known for his quiet intensity. He barely celebrates between points, then erupts when they win a set. Before Pretoria, he was a name only serious fans knew. London will show if that changes.

Padel courts costing £100 an hour in the UK won't kill the sport. But it will split it in two. The BBC raised the right question. The answer is already playing out.

Premium venues serving sparkling water and organic smoothies will thrive in wealthy suburbs. Community clubs charging £25 will grow the base. The problem starts when city councils approve only the former.

If padel's UK infrastructure skews luxury, it'll peak exactly where tennis peaked: affluent and stagnant. Growth needs volume, and volume needs accessible courts. Agree? Hit reply.

27 — Consecutive Premier Padel finals for Arturo Coello and Agustín Tapia, stretching back 15 months. The streak ended in Pretoria when Javi Leal and Fran Guerrero beat them 7-5, 7-5 in the semifinals. For context, no other pair on tour has managed more than 8 consecutive finals this season.