Tapia and Coello Were Serving to Stay Alive — Then Paris Became Their Fourth Straight
GOATIFYArturo Coello and Agustín Tapia were one service game from watching the Paris Major slip away. Federico Chingotto and Alejandro Galán had dragged the world No. 1 pair through nearly every kind of pressure a final can produce, recovered from losing the opening set, seized control of the third and reached 5–3 with the championship on their rackets.
Then the match changed completely. Coello and Tapia broke back, pushed the final into the first title-deciding tiebreak in Paris Major history and overwhelmed their rivals 7–1 when the trophy was reduced to seven decisive points. The 6–3, 4–6, 7–6 victory gave them a fourth consecutive Paris Major title at Roland-Garros and moved their head-to-head record against Galán and Chingotto to 27–13.
The scoreline makes the comeback dramatic. The way it happened makes it more revealing. Tapia was not at his cleanest for long stretches, Galán and Chingotto had real tactical control, and the champions still found their highest level exactly when the final stopped offering second chances.
The first set turned on three missed chances
The opening games were almost unnervingly clean. All four players protected serve comfortably through 3–3, with neither pair giving the other much to attack. Chingotto then started to influence more points with his speed and defensive pressure, and Galán had room to become more aggressive around him. Together they created three break points against the No. 1 pair.
Those opportunities disappeared. Coello and Tapia survived the game, and the punishment was immediate. In the next service game they applied the same pressure back to Galán and Chingotto and earned the break that separated the set. Tapia, helped by quicker conditions as the sun returned and the Philippe-Chatrier roof opened, found enough acceleration to make the difference. The leaders closed the set 6–3 with a love hold.
It was an early example of the margin that has defined this rivalry. Galán and Chingotto were not being outplayed across every phase; in fact, they had created the first major opening. But against a pair that has made a habit of turning small escapes into momentum, failing to convert three chances in one game carried a much larger cost than the scoreboard initially suggested.
Galán and Chingotto pushed the world No. 1s to the edge
The second set was where the final stopped following the familiar script. Coello and Tapia opened with two break opportunities, but this time Galán and Chingotto escaped. Chingotto kept extending rallies and forcing extra balls, while Galán sharpened both his overhead game and his work at the net. Tapia began to rush, his error count climbed and the balance of the match moved toward the challengers.
At 5–4, Galán finally converted the pressure into a break. He tracked down a Tapia smash, turned the point around and helped close the set 6–4. That was not just an equalizer. The momentum carried directly into the deciding set, where Galán and Chingotto broke early and stretched their run to five consecutive games across the end of the second and start of the third.
At 3–0, Tapia looked frustrated and unusually subdued. At 5–3, Galán and Chingotto served for the title. For Chingotto, the moment carried extra weight: this was his fifth consecutive Paris final, and the chance to finally end a run of defeats at Roland-Garros was sitting one hold away.
Coello owned the seven points that decided the title
That final service game never became the coronation Galán and Chingotto expected. Coello and Tapia broke back, and the psychological pressure flipped almost instantly. Galán missed several lobs in the games that followed, the champions sensed the opening and the match reached a third-set tiebreak — the first time the men's Paris Major title had been decided that way.
Coello then produced the clearest stretch of dominance in the entire final. With Tapia still having a more uneven day than usual, Coello raised his level when the format left no room for recovery. The No. 1 pair jumped in front and never let the tiebreak become competitive, taking it 7–1 and ending a final they had seemed certain to lose only minutes earlier.
The result deepens one of padel's defining rivalries. This was the 40th meeting between the two pairs. Coello and Tapia entered the final leading 26–13 and left at 27–13. More painfully for their opponents, Galán and Chingotto have now lost three straight Paris Major finals to the same pair, while Chingotto has reached five consecutive Paris finals without lifting the trophy.
For Tapia, Philippe-Chatrier remains a perfect stage. He is still unbeaten there, and he and Coello have now won the Paris Major four years in a row. The victory also protects their lead in the Race standings, another reward for a pair whose biggest advantage is increasingly difficult to describe as simple shot-making.
They can be pressured. They can lose momentum. They can even look second-best for long sections of a major final. What keeps separating Coello and Tapia is that the match has to be finished before their best version reappears. Galán and Chingotto got to 5–3 and served for Paris. Seven tiebreak points later, the trophy was back with the same champions.
Padel-inspired GOATIFY shirts, hoodies and accessories for players and fans.
