Ooredoo Qatar Major, day 3. Masterpiece of Yanguas-Garrido: out Lebron and Galan

The exploit of the week is that of Mike Yanguas and Javi Garrido. After two hours and 57 minutes of battle, the number 10 on the draw eliminated in the round of 16 the kings of Riyadh and number 1 in the Ooredoo Major Premier Padel in Doha, Juan Lebron and Ale Galan, who had won the first set in the tiebreak but had to bow to a super performance by Yanguas and Garrido. The match, played on the Centre Court and finished 6-7 7-6 6-4, confirms a trend: the level of the 2024 Premier Padel is very high, and it will be a season in which we could see more than one such result. The outsiders are coming, and they strongly want the padel throne and the best places of the FIP ranking: Yanguas, by the way, had already beaten Lebron and Galan in a Major, at the Foro Italico, paired with Fernando Belasteguin. Yanguas and Garrido, at the top of the draw, will now in the quarters face Alex Arroyo and Edu Alonso (14), who beat Ruiz/Tello (7). The other quarter, at the top, will be between Gonzalez/Chingotto (5) and defending champions Stupaczuk/Di Nenno (8). At the bottom half, however, there is a winning debut for Arturo Coello and Agustin Tapia (6-2 6-4 to Cruz Belluati/Fernandez): in the quarters are Nieto/Sanz (9). The other quarter is between Navarro/Gutierrez (4) and Cardona/Ruiz, who got the better of Fernando Belasteguin and Luciano Capra (6).

WOMEN If Lebron and Galan will not be more on court in Qatar, in the women’s draw number 1 Paula Josemaria and Ari Sanchez are still in the running, despite suffering for one set. Thanks to a 7-6 6-0 win over Ana Caterina Nogueira and Beatriz Caldera, they will advance to the quarter-finals, where they will find Castelló/Jensen (7). Five games conceded by Brea/Gonzalez (2) to Osoro/Goenaga (10), three by Triay/Fernandez (3) to Rufo/Martinez (11) and by Salazar/Icardo (5) to Saiz/Merino. A more painful 7-5 6-3 by Ortega/Virseda (4) to Talavan/Rodriguez (12). Russia’s Ksenia Sharifova and Spain’s Esther Carnicero, tomorrow’s opponents of Ortega/Virseda, are the only non-seeded pair to have gained access to the quarter-finals.