Milan's Veterans Won on Day One — Now Coello and Tapia Raise the Stakes
GOATIFYMilan's Premier Padel P1 began with a reminder that the sport's biggest names do not all enter the draw at the same time. While the leading seeds waited for their byes to expire, two men who once stood at the top of world padel supplied the opening-day story. Maxi Sánchez advanced alongside Lucho Capra, and Sanyo Gutiérrez fought through a three-set match with Maxi Sánchez Blasco. Neither victory decided the tournament, but together they gave the first day a character of its own: experience still matters in a draw increasingly shaped by younger, faster and more powerful pairs.
Sánchez and Capra beat the team featuring Italy's Flavio Abbate 7–6, 6–4. Gutiérrez and Sánchez Blasco defeated Nacho Vilariño and Coquito Zamora 6–3, 4–6, 6–2. Those scorelines reveal different kinds of work. One pair protected its advantage in a tight opener and closed in straight sets; the other had to recover after its momentum disappeared. The prize for both is another chance to test that resilience as the seeded contenders arrive at the Allianz Cloud.
The two former No. 1s won in very different ways
The temptation is to group the two results under one familiar label: the veterans are still here. That misses the contrast between the matches. Sánchez and Capra took a first set that required a tie-break and then found a cleaner route through the second. Their 7–6, 6–4 win over Alonso Rodríguez and Flavio Abbate was not a procession, but it did show the value of converting a narrow opening into a completed result. Abbate arrived with a particular local profile as the highest-ranked Italian-born player on the FIP list, giving the matchup more attention than an ordinary first-round pairing might receive.
Gutiérrez had to solve a different problem. Playing with Maxi Sánchez Blasco — a younger player who should not be confused with former world No. 1 Maxi Sánchez — he won the first set against Vilariño and Zamora before losing the second. Their 6–3, 4–6, 6–2 progression required a reset rather than a straightforward finish. A decisive set can reward the team that regains depth on its lobs, chooses better moments to move forward and refuses to turn a temporary dip into a full match collapse. The score alone cannot establish precisely which adjustment did the work, but it confirms that the Argentine pair found a second gear when the match demanded it.
There is a longer story behind the two names. Sánchez and Gutiérrez were once a celebrated partnership, sharing some of the most significant chapters of modern padel before taking separate paths. The photograph accompanying this section shows that earlier period, not their current Milan pairings. Their 2026 wins are therefore not a reunion on court; they are parallel reminders of how elite players can remain competitive while their partners, roles and expectations change. One is working with Capra, the other with Sánchez Blasco. Both have to build patterns suited to the player beside them now, rather than rely on memories of what once worked.
For the Italian wild cards, a home stage offered no protection
The opening day was harsher for the home contingent. Marco Cassetta and Fabián Oviedo entered with a wild card but lost to Javi Barahona and Nacho Piotto. The other Italian invitation, Giulio Graziotti and Simone Iacovino, ended with a defeat to David Gala and Italian-Argentine Enzo Jensen. A wild card guarantees a place in the draw, not a softer opponent or time to settle into the pace. At P1 level, the early rounds can feel like a direct test of whether a promising pair can hold its shape under sustained pressure.
Cassetta's result is particularly instructive because it came immediately after a success elsewhere. He and Oviedo had just won a FIP Bronze title in Rovigo, where they beat Alessandro Volpin and Giulio Callegarin in a three-set final. The image here captures that triumph, not their Milan defeat. It is useful context precisely because the two outcomes are not contradictory. A pair can have the confidence and rhythm to win on the FIP Tour and still discover that a Premier Padel main draw asks harder questions about serve protection, positioning and the quality of opponents' first attacking balls.
Italy still has other reasons to watch the week closely. Giulia Dal Pozzo, arriving from a FIP Silver title with Nuria Rodríguez in Croatia, is scheduled for an all-Italian first-round contest against Giorgia Marchetti and Lara Arruabarrena. That match puts domestic attention on a different part of the draw after the men's wild-card exits. Dal Pozzo's recent win and her selection for Italy's World Cup squad make her an especially interesting player to follow, but neither is a guarantee of a deep Milan run. The more useful question is whether a strong lower-tier week translates into clean decision-making against opponents who know her game.
Coello and Tapia arrive with three straight trophies — and a bigger target
The opening-round survivors have earned their place in a tournament that is about to change intensity. Arturo Coello and Agustín Tapia come to Milan after winning the Paris Major, Rotterdam P2 and Düsseldorf P2 in succession. Their German title was their eleventh of 2026, secured by beating Franco Stupaczuk and Jon Sanz 6–2, 7–6. Milan is not simply another stop on that sequence. It is a P1, with a larger draw and more ranking points available than at a P2, and it arrives while the race for the season's biggest prizes is tightening.
Coello and Tapia are scheduled to open against Arnau Ayats and Emilio Chamero on Wednesday. That gives the world leaders time to recover after their Düsseldorf final, but it also means their first opponent will have match rhythm from the opening round. A bye is valuable because it saves physical effort; it is not an automatic guarantee of sharpness. For a pair whose edge often comes from controlling the net and making opponents defend repeated attacks, the opening games will reveal whether their timing has travelled with them from Germany.
Across the draw, defending Milan champions Alejandro Galán and Federico Chingotto begin against Portuguese brothers Miguel and Nuno Deus. The holders have a distinct reason to value this arena: in the 2025 final they recovered from a set down to beat Coello and Tapia 2–6, 6–3, 6–0. That result belongs to last year, not the present event, but it shows why Milan has a special place in their rivalry. A potential rematch is possible only if both pairs navigate the intervening rounds. Meanwhile, Stupaczuk and Sanz have already shown they can disrupt the leading challengers, so reducing the men's draw to a two-team final would be premature.
The 48-pair men's field gives the top sixteen seeds byes into the second round. The format rewards ranking position while giving first-round winners the chance to arrive battle-tested. For Sánchez, Gutiérrez and the other Monday survivors, the real measure of their opening results will come when they face opponents who have spent the first day watching rather than playing.
Salazar's Tuesday opener and the women's draw add another generational test
The same theme of experience meeting a changing tour carries into Tuesday's women's programme. Alejandra Salazar, another former world No. 1, is due on court at 9:30 a.m. Milan time with Aranzazu Osoro against Alix Collombon and Ksenia Sharifova. Salazar's presence connects the event's past and present, but the matchup is not a ceremonial appearance. Collombon and Sharifova will have their own tactical plans, and Salazar and Osoro must win the ordinary battles of court position, return depth and first-volley quality before any wider narrative matters.
The women's draw has 28 pairs, with four seeded teams receiving first-round byes. Gemma Triay and Delfi Brea arrive as the top-ranked pairing, while former Milan champions Paula Josemaría and Ari Sánchez are now on opposite sides of the draw with Bea González and Andrea Ustero respectively. That reshuffling makes the tournament interesting even before the leading pairs play: established names must build familiar patterns with different partners, and the best young combinations can force them to defend for longer than they prefer.
Dal Pozzo's meeting with Marchetti also gives the home crowd a direct stake in Tuesday's action. An all-Italian contest guarantees one home-linked team will progress, but it also ensures another exits. It is a sharper kind of pressure than the welcome a wild card receives at the start of the week. Both teams have to treat the occasion as a match to solve, not a celebration to enjoy.
Finals are scheduled for Sunday, October 18, at the Allianz Cloud, where the indoor conditions and compact setting should keep the emphasis on precision rather than weather. The opening day did not settle the men's or women's title races. It did establish the week's first meaningful contrast: seasoned champions can still produce winning tennis-like craft on a padel court, while the game's current leaders wait to show how much the competitive standard has moved.
Milan's first Monday will be remembered less for a major upset than for who refused to disappear from the conversation. Sánchez and Gutiérrez advanced with different partners and different routes through their matches. Italy's invited pairs learned how quickly a home draw can become unforgiving. The favorites, led by Coello and Tapia, are still to come, and Salazar's Tuesday appearance adds another layer to the generational story.
The next rounds will decide whether opening-day experience is enough to threaten the seeded order. For now, the veterans have earned the right to ask the question on court rather than answer it from the sidelines.
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