Coello And Tapia Remain Unbeaten In Rotterdam

Arturo Coello and Agustín Tapia cruised to their third Premier Padel Rotterdam P2 title in a row on Sunday as Ariana Sánchez Fallada and Andrea Ustero Prieto held off Bea González and Paula Josemaría Martín to gain revenge for their recent Valladolid P2 defeat.

Top seeds Coello and Tapia were looking to extend their lead over big rivals Alejandro Galán and Fede Chingotto in the rankings on finals day against fifth seeds Franco Stupaczuk and Jon Sanz, the pair needing just 69 minutes to see off the outsiders 6-3 6-2 in a ruthless display of dominance.

Tapia, 27, revealed: “The truth is that the goal is clear: now we have three weeks in a row. We’re thinking day by day, rather than week by week. We started from a lower level and improved as the tournament went on. We finished the final playing at a very, very high level.”

The Ahoy Rotterdam arena saw some thrilling quarter-finals with Coello and Tapia needing to come back from a set down to defeat unseeded Argentines Valentino Gabriel Libaak and Gonzalo Alfonso 4-6 6-3 6-3 as Galán and Chingotto bowed out 6-4 6-4 to the shock duo of Stupaczuk and Sanz.

Stupaczuk and Sanz then saw off sixth seeds Miguel Yanguas and Jorge Nieto Ruiz – who had already accounted for third seeds Juan Lebrón and Leandro Augsburger – as Coello and Tapia were taken to three sets again on Saturday before defeating Jeronimo Gonzalez and Lucas Campagnolo 6-1 3-6 6-1.

Argentine Stupaczuk was bidding to become one of the few players to win a title in 10 consecutive seasons, but him and Sanz folded under the pressure as the final became one-way traffic.

Coello, 24, said: “I need to be more focused in this moment, because they started incredible. We found the solution fast and played an incredible match. We are so, so proud for our level this week.”

The women’s event did not offer up many surprises during the week, the top four seeds advancing to the semi-finals where Sánchez and Ustero demolished top seeds Gemma Triay Pons and Delfina Brea Senesi 6-2 6-3 while González and Josemaría beat Claudia Fernández Sánchez and Martina Calvo 6-3 6-4.

Sánchez and Josemaría won this event together in 2024, but were on opposite sides of the court on Sunday – third seeds Sánchez and Ustero combining to defeat the second seeds 6-4 6-4 in one hour and 41 minutes which halves the rankings gap between them leading into the next European stop.

Sánchez, 29, said: “They’re a very difficult pair to beat; you have to play with a lot of concentration. In the end, I had a goal, a challenge, which was to be able to win two finals in a row, something we hadn’t done before. We’re in a very good moment.”

Ustero, 19, added: “We worked really hard in Barcelona so that we could be ready for these kinds of matches. We’ve had a very, very complete tournament together with the whole team. Beating the number one and number two pairs in the same tournament is not easy at all.”