Day 5: Galán and Lebrón claim their third. Alonso vs. Icardo: a two-way race for the Finals

Ale Alonso or Tamara Icardo, who will be the last player qualified for the Premier Padel Finals in Barcelona? Saturday, the day of the Milano Premier Padel P1 semi-finals, could be a decisive day in the FIP Race, as Friday’s was not. From three, the players still in the running for a place became two anyway, with Aranzazu Osoro (and Veronica Virseda) losing to Delfi Brea and Bea Gonzalez, which ruled out the ‘Vikinga’ and qualified the defending champions thanks to a 7-6 6-1 victory. In the morning, however, Ale Alonso’s dream of joining Andrea Ustero had become more vivid than ever, with the success of the two young Spaniards over two totems of Spanish and world padel such as Lucia Sainz and Patty Llaguno, beaten 7-5 4-6 6-1. In the evening, however, came that of Tamara Icardo, who started more distant in the FIP Race but who – thanks also to the cooperation of Claudia Jensen – is building her last chance despite the many tournaments missed this season due to injury. On court number 1, the tournament’s number 7 seed won the marathon of the day, eliminating with a score of 6-4 4-6 6-4 in three hours and 18 minutes Marta Ortega and Sofia Araujo, thus denying the number 4 seeded pair the chance of a rematch of the Acapulco Major final. Gemma Triay and Claudia Fernandez, the champions in Mexico and the pair at the top of the Milano Premier Padel P1 draw, instead continued their march: Gemma and Claudia, in one hour and 7′, stopped the run of Ale Salazar and Jessica Castelló (6-0 6-3). They will be the ones to open the afternoon session on the centre court, not before 6 p.m CET. Two semifinals (the first is played at 1 p.m. between Alonso/Ustero and Brea/Gonzalez) that will decide not only the last P1 of the season, but could also be decisive in the FIP Race leading to Barcelona.

MEN To the Allianz Cloud crowd it will be strange not to see them in the same half of the court, but on Sunday in the final of the Milano Premier Padel P1 there will only be place for one of the champions of the first two editions of the tournament. Juan Lebron versus Ale Galan, two players who together have written the history of padel once again opponents, as in the semi-finals of the P2 in Genova and the Major in Paris (with two wins for Galan). ‘You again”: yes, them again, after starting the season together, after they had separated, faced each other as opponents and then reunited for “El Regreso” in the final of the FIP World Padel Championships in Doha lost by Spain to Argentina. Lebron and Martin Di Nenno versus Galan and Fede Chingotto: up for grabs in the second semi-final of the evening session starting not before 6 p.m., there’s only one spot for the final. The quarter-final between Di Nenno and Lebron and the pair formed by Coki Nieto and Jon Sanz ended when the score was 6-1 4-1 in favour of the number 3 seed: an ankle problem forced Sanz to retire, but still allowed a small fan with a wolf mask on his head to go to ‘El Lobo’ Lebron for a souvenir photo. A physical problem also made Javi Garrido’s evening difficult. He was defeated in a pair with Lucas Bergamini by Fede Chingotto and Ale Galan who, after two defeats in the semi-finals against Franco Stupaczuk and Mike Yanguas in Kuwait City and Acapulco, with 6-4 6-0 in the quarters will now try to return to the final. Bergamini will however console himself with an entry into the Barcelona Premier Padel Finals. At the top half, however, Arturo Coello and Agustin Tapia will play versus Momo Gonzalez and Edu Alonso. The number 1 seed had to struggle against Paquito Navarro and Pablo Cardona, but managed to bring the match home in two hours and 8 minutes with a score of 7-5 4-6 6-3; Gonzalez and Alonso, on the other hand, qualified for their third semi-final as a pair (after the P2s in Finland and NewGiza) after Franco Stupaczuk and Mike Yanguas withdrew due to a shoulder injury suffered by the Argentine in a spill from an X3 by Alonso.

Between the women’s second semi-final and the men’s second semi-final, the Allianz Cloud audience but also the entire padel world will once again bid farewell to Fernando Belasteguin, who in Milano by losing in the round of 16 to Garrido and Bergamini ended a legendary career.