Tapia Praises De Pascual — Garrido's Milan Upset May Be a Turning Point
GOATIFYAgustín Tapia left Milan with another title alongside Arturo Coello, yet one of his most revealing observations was about a pair that never reached the final. Javi Garrido and Juan Ignacio “Juani” De Pascual had knocked out fifth seeds Paquito Navarro and Martín Di Nenno in straight sets. For a partnership still learning how to win together, that performance drew attention from the player setting the standard at the top of men's padel.
Tapia's praise, reported on October 21 after the Milano P1, went beyond the usual compliment about a promising youngster. He admired De Pascual's creative game and suggested that the Argentine had helped restore Garrido's appetite for competing against the best. It is a compelling assessment because the partnership's most encouraging result was followed by a quarter-final defeat: there is evidence of progress, but not yet proof of lasting consistency.
The central question is whether Milan marked a genuine reset for Garrido or simply one outstanding afternoon. The scorelines, the players' contrasting styles and the demanding calendar ahead make that question more interesting than the familiar story of Tapia and Coello collecting another trophy.
Garrido and De Pascual made the fifth seeds look vulnerable
The breakthrough came in the Milano P1 round of 16. Garrido and De Pascual beat Navarro and Di Nenno 6–2, 6–3, a striking margin against opponents with considerably more experience together at the highest levels of the sport. Navarro and Di Nenno entered as the fifth seeds, while Garrido and De Pascual were seeded 16th. The upset was not a narrow escape settled by a late tiebreak; it was a clear two-set victory that forced the draw to change shape.
That distinction matters. When a lower-seeded pair steals a deciding set, observers can reasonably wonder whether a few isolated points swung the outcome. Winning by that score instead suggests the challengers found repeatable ways to put pressure on their opponents. It does not establish permanent superiority, but it offers a stronger starting point for judging a new combination than an encouraging defeat would have done.
Garrido's season had already included difficult stretches and changes of partner. A new teammate cannot erase those experiences in a week, and the pressure to prove that the latest combination will last can be as heavy as the opponents across the net. Milan provided something concrete: a significant victory against an established pair, with De Pascual contributing enough to make the partnership feel more than a short-term experiment.
The next match showed the distance still to travel. Juan Lebrón and Leo Augsburger ended Garrido and De Pascual's run 7–6, 6–1 in the quarter-finals. The competitive opening set is evidence that the underdogs could trouble another elite partnership; the second-set score is a reminder that keeping that level for an entire match is a separate skill. It would be a mistake to describe Milan as an uninterrupted surge when its final act was so one-sided.
The useful reading of the week is therefore balanced. Garrido and De Pascual have beaten a major pair and reached the last eight of a P1, but they have not yet turned one upset into a sequence of deep runs. That is precisely why an endorsement from someone of Tapia's standing carries weight: he is identifying qualities that may survive beyond the headline result.
Tapia praised De Pascual's imagination — and what it brings out in Garrido
Tapia knows the difference between an attractive shot-maker and a player capable of winning regularly. His partnership with Coello has spent the season absorbing pressure from opponents who arrive with elaborate plans to stop them. That makes his reaction to De Pascual noteworthy. Speaking about the young Argentine, Tapia described him as possessing “an incredible talent” and made clear how much he enjoys watching his game.
De Pascual's appeal is not difficult to understand. He is a left-handed player who brings variation and invention, while Garrido supplies established top-level experience and an aggressive presence. In doubles padel, such differences can be productive when both players know when to create, when to protect space and when to slow a rally down. A creative partner can change the choices available to an attacker without needing to dominate every exchange himself.
Tapia's more interesting point concerned the older member of the pair. He suggested that De Pascual had renewed Garrido's willingness to fight and measure himself against anyone. That is an observation about attitude rather than a ranking calculation. After a run of unsettled partnerships, the value of feeling confident in a teammate can be considerable, particularly in close games when hesitation quickly becomes an opening for the opposition.
Still, chemistry should not be treated as a magical explanation. A partnership needs reliable communication, shared coverage of the middle of the court and an understanding of which player takes control after the ball rebounds from the glass. Those habits are learned through matches, including uncomfortable ones. The loss to Lebrón and Augsburger offered the sort of examination that a comfortable win cannot: can the pair respond when an opponent solves its first pattern of attack?
Tapia has also been careful not to reduce modern padel to the simple formula of putting a right-hander beside a left-hander. The important qualities are adaptability and the ability to compete under different conditions. For Garrido and De Pascual, that means their complementary hands and styles are assets only if they keep producing good decisions when the speed of the court, the opponent's tactics or the score changes.
Milan was the spark; the next tournaments must supply the proof
Professional padel moves quickly from one result to the next. The Milano P1 ended on October 18 with Tapia and Coello defeating Lebrón and Augsburger 4–6, 6–3, 6–2 in the men's final. The champions recovered after losing the first set; the pair that had eliminated Garrido and De Pascual could not finish the job. That sequence is a useful illustration of the level required to turn a good week into a title.
By contrast, Garrido and De Pascual are trying to build the habits that make a quarter-final less surprising the next time it happens. Their Milan victory over Navarro and Di Nenno is a reference point, not a guarantee. Opponents now have fresh footage of the combination, and tactical surprises tend to become less surprising once the field has had time to study them.
The calendar makes the next stage especially demanding. The Kuwait Major begins qualifying on October 23, with men's main-draw play starting on October 25 and finals scheduled for October 31, according to the international federation's event information. The tournament has Major status for 2026, with 2,000 ranking points available to the winning pair. Those stakes sharpen the broader race at the top of the sport, whether or not any particular emerging team can convert its recent momentum into a breakthrough there.
Nothing in one Milan result proves that Garrido and De Pascual will stay together indefinitely, reach the final of a Major or suddenly threaten the No. 1 pair. Their achievement is more modest and more credible: they have demonstrated that a partnership with different strengths can beat a highly regarded team on a big stage. The next objective is to reproduce that level without relying on the element of surprise.
That is also why Tapia's words are more useful as a challenge than a coronation. The world No. 1 has recognized De Pascual's potential and Garrido's renewed competitiveness. The players now have to convert those qualities into repeated wins, tighter second sets against top opponents and the sort of consistency that makes a quarter-final feel like a minimum rather than an exception.
Garrido and De Pascual did not win the Milano P1, and their quarter-final exit showed how much work remains. But their 6–2, 6–3 dismissal of Navarro and Di Nenno supplied a result that can change how a new partnership sees itself. Tapia's praise gave the performance an extra dimension: the most established winners on tour have noticed what this combination might become.
The interesting part comes next. If De Pascual's imagination continues to free Garrido's attacking game and both players learn to sustain their level against elite pairs, Milan may be remembered as the week a promising partnership began to look serious. If the results fluctuate, the victory will remain a notable upset. Either way, the assessment should be made through the matches still to come, not by turning one endorsement into a prediction.
Shop GOATIFY padel products from the Padel-filtered collection scope.
