Lotto Brussels Premier P2, day 4 Masterpieces by Nieto-Sanz and Yanguas-Garrido. Coello-Tapia, what a thrill!

Coki Nieto and Jon Sanz have done it again. For the second tournament in a row, after the one in Puerto Cabello, the number 16 and number 18 in the FIP ranking reached the semifinals. Nieto and Sanz, the number 8 seed in the Lotto Brussels Premier P2 draw, defeated numbers 2 Juan Lebron and Paquito Navarro at the end of a very balanced match that lasted two hours and 21 minutes. After winning the first set with a score of 6-3, Nieto and Sanz were taken to the third by the reaction of Lebron and Navarro. In the deciding set, however, it was Nieto and Sanz who remained more focused in the key moments and closed 6-3 4-6 7-5. In the semifinals there will be a challenge to Fede Chingotto and Ale Galan, the number 3 seed, who beat 6-3 6-3 Pablo Garcia and Emilio Chamero, who played a great tournament. For the possible first duel as opponents between Lebron and Galan it will therefore have to wait until next week’s P2 in Sevilla.

The other feat of the day was that of Mike Yanguas (number 12 in the FIP ranking) and Javi Garrido (13), who defeated the ‘Superpibes’ Franco Stupaczuk and Martin Di Nenno, who after four semifinals in a row, stopped in the quarters. It was the two Argentines who dominated the first set (6-1), giving the impression that they could quickly close out the match. But Yanguas and Garrido, already finalists in Doha, didn’t give up, and from the middle of the second set to the end of the third they hardly missed a point, winning 1-6 6-3 6-4 in two hours and 3 minutes. In the semifinals, Yanguas and Garrido will face – as they did in the final of the Ooredoo Qatar Major – Arturo Coello and Agustin Tapia, who beat 4-6 6-3 7-5 Miguel Lamperti and Juan Cruz Belluati in the evening, after cancelling two match points in the third set that would have broken a winning streak that has been going on since Doha. In Qatar it ended 6-0 6-2 for Coello and Tapia, but Yanguas and Garrido are looking for a revenge.

WOMEN If among the men the number 1, 3, 5 and 8 seeded players will be on court for the semifinals, the quarterfinals of the women’s draw went according to predictions. The challenge between two pairs who have already won at least one Premier Padel tournament in 2024, that between Paula Josemaria and Ari Sanchez (number 1 in the FIP ranking and champions in Riyadh and Doha) and between Jessica Castelló and Claudia Jensen (queens in Acapulco), was won with a double 6-2 by the Spaniards, who in the semifinals will face Gemma Triay and Claudia Fernandez (3), who also in the quarters as in the round of 16 needed the third set to defeat Lucia Sainz and Patty Llaguno (8) with a score of 6-3 4-6 6-0. At the bottom half of the draw, however, Tamara Icardo and Alejandra Salazar – the number 4 seed and winners 6-2 6-0 over Virginia Riera and Sofia Araujo – will try to stop Delfi Brea and Bea Gonzalez (2), winners of the P2 in Puerto Cabello and who beat Marta Ortega and Veronica Virseda (5) with a double 6-3.

The semifinals schedule in Brussels will begin at 10 a.m. with Josemaria/Sanchez-Triay/Fernandez, followed by Chingotto/Galan-Nieto/Sanz. Not before 5 p.m., Icardo/Salazar-Brea/Gonzalez and Coello/Tapia-Yanguas/Garrido.