Day 5. Coello and Tapia forced to the third set by Garrido and Bergamini: but the record is safe

Few times, as in the quarter-finals of the Premier Padel Kuwait City P1, has Arturo Coello and Agustin Tapia’s record of victories close to be broken. The dominators of the circuit, and winners of 11 titles this season, were faced with a pair who gave an extraordinary performance, and above all of taking the number 1 seeded players to the third set, something that had not happened before the final since the Rome Major in June. After two hours and 45 minutes of show, however, Lucas Bergamini and Javi Garrido were defeated by Coello and Tapia, who, by winning 7-5 5-7 6-1 in their 33^rd consecutive match, guaranteed themselves the chance to play the semifinals, where they will find Fran Guerrero and Jairo Bautista, more and more the surprise of this season’s ending, which brings the Spaniards (number 31 and 28 in the FIP ranking) their first career semifinal in the Premier Padel circuit thanks to a 6-4 6-4 win over Coki Nieto and Jon Sanz (6). The semifinals of the bottom half will instead see the number 2 and 4 seeded players face each other: after some suffering in the first two rounds, Fede Chingotto and Ale Galan closed out their duel against Pablo Cardona and Paquito Navarro (5) in an hour and 9 minutes, with a score of 6-2 6-4. On the other hand, Franco Stupaczuk and Mike Yanguas (4) had to work hard to eliminate Inigo Jofre and Juan Tello, the number 13 seed, in three sets (6-1 4-6 6-2) which ended a great tournament.

WOMEN The top four seeds in the women’s draw are still in the running and will compete in the most eagerly awaited semi-finals on Saturday (starting at 2 p.m. local time, 12 p.m. CET). At the top half, Paula Josemaria and Ari Sanchez were on court for an hour and 43 minutes before breaking the resistance of Aranzazu Osoro and Veronica Virseda (6-4 6-2). The Argentine consoled herself with a virtual entry among the 16 players who would now play the Barcelona Premier Padel Finals, considering the Race. Paula and Ari will face Marta Ortega and Sofia Araujo (4), victorious 6-4 6-3 over Ale Salazar and Jessica Castelló, after a match that lasted one hour and 59 minutes, in Saturday’s opening match. The marathon of the day, in the women’s tournament, was Delfi Brea and Bea Gonzalez (6-2 6-7 6-3) winning over Tamara Icardo and Claudia Jensen: after two hours and 42 minutes, the Argentine and the Spanish can still hope for a P1 double after Dubai, but they will have to face Gemma Triay and Claudia Fernandez (2), who after suffering a set against Lorena Rufo and Bea Caldera, closed 7-5 6-0 in one hour and 38 minutes.