0 Finals in 3 Events — Why Chingotto's Coach Still Believes Before Kuwait
GOATIFYFor almost two and a half seasons, the most reliable sight in elite men's padel was Alejandro Galán and Federico Chingotto making it to the final. They did not win every title, and Arturo Coello and Agustín Tapia remained the pair to catch, but Galán and Chingotto made Sunday appearances feel almost automatic. That rhythm has abruptly changed.
Rotterdam, Düsseldorf and Milan have now passed without a final for the Spanish-Argentine duo. It is their first three-event run without reaching a title match since they joined forces in March 2024. With the 2026 Race gap to Coello and Tapia reported at roughly 2,900 points, the late-season pressure is real. Yet coach Jorge Martínez is directing attention toward something less visible than a results column: Chingotto's willingness to work, listen and keep improving.
That contrast is the story before the Kuwait Major. One of the circuit's most successful partnerships has to solve an immediate competitive problem while preparing for a change in its coaching structure at the end of the year. The question is not simply whether Galán and Chingotto can reach another final. It is whether they can recover the habits that made those finals so routine.
Three tournaments without a final — and Milan's 6-0 illusion
Three consecutive tournaments without a final would be a respectable spell for most professional pairs. For Galán and Chingotto, it is unusual enough to become a headline. Their partnership began in March 2024 and quickly established a remarkably high floor: a dependable combination of Galán's explosive attacking game and Chingotto's control on the right side. The absence of a final in Rotterdam, Düsseldorf and Milan is therefore more revealing than a single upset would have been.
Milan supplied the sharpest illustration. In the October 17 semifinal against Juan Lebrón and Leo Augsburger, Galán and Chingotto raced through the first set 6-0 in just 23 minutes. The opening suggested that the defending champions had rediscovered their best rhythm. Instead, Lebrón and Augsburger took the next two sets 6-2, 6-2. Twelve of the last sixteen games went against the second seeds. It was not simply a close defeat in which two points swung the outcome; it was a match whose balance changed dramatically.
That scoreline matters because it separates the problem into two questions. Galán and Chingotto clearly still possess a level capable of overwhelming top opposition for a stretch. Sustaining that level after an opponent changes tactics is the harder task. When the other side starts taking the net earlier, varying the pace or directing pressure toward a different corner, a dominant opening set offers no protection. The next response has to come from the pair's decision-making and communication.
There is useful perspective here. Galán and Chingotto won seven titles during the first part of 2026, including a hard-fought Madrid P1 triumph, and reached the Paris Major final in September. Their ceiling has not vanished in a few weeks. But the sport's margins are narrow, and a season can change quickly when other combinations grow more confident. Lebrón and Augsburger's Milan comeback showed how dangerous the chasing pack can be even before Coello and Tapia enter the conversation.
The ranking consequences are unavoidable. A few weeks ago, the race for number one appeared much tighter. Now the leading pair has room to breathe. That does not mean Galán and Chingotto have stopped being elite, nor does it establish that their partnership is ending. It means that simply waiting for the next meeting with the world leaders is no longer a sufficient plan. First they must consistently beat the opponents between them and that meeting.
Why Martínez is defending Chingotto's daily work
Martínez's latest comments focus on a quality that does not show up in a match statistic: how a player behaves on the practice court. Speaking about Chingotto, the coach praised his positive attitude, openness to instruction and willingness to try adjustments. He described a professional who makes training constructive even when results are disappointing. It is a meaningful endorsement at a moment when outside debate can turn every defeat into a referendum on a partnership.
For a right-side player such as Chingotto, that attitude has practical consequences. Much of his value lies in work that does not end with a spectacular smash: returning accurately, keeping opponents behind the service line, changing the height of a lob, reading the next volley and giving Galán the right ball to attack. These are repeatable details, but they are not automatic. A pair under pressure can start forcing the winning shot too early or retreating when it should hold its position at the net.
Martínez has spent years emphasizing small tactical decisions rather than dramatic reinvention. After the duo beat Coello and Tapia 7-5, 7-6 in the Gijón P2 final in March, he highlighted the importance of their defensive choices and their response to difficult moments. That victory is a useful historical reference because it showed the same partnership functioning with patience and conviction against the strongest possible opponents. The challenge now is to recreate those habits without treating an old result as a guarantee.
Coaching is particularly important when confidence becomes fragile. A player who listens to feedback can adjust positioning between sets, test a different return pattern or recognize when a rival is targeting a predictable ball. None of that ensures the next match will be won. It does make it easier to distinguish a solvable tactical issue from a vague sense that everything is going wrong. Martínez's praise is best understood in that light: he is defending the process that can produce better performances, not pretending the recent losses did not happen.
There is also a longer-term dimension. Martínez has said that 2026 will be his final season traveling full-time on the professional circuit, with more of his attention moving to M3 Padel Academy and coaching development. He has worked with Galán for roughly fifteen years and helped shape the current Galán-Chingotto project. A coaching transition is therefore approaching regardless of the next scoreline. The team has an incentive to make this final stretch productive rather than allow the uncertainty of 2027 to dominate the final weeks of 2026.
Kuwait offers a major reset, not an instant solution
The next major opportunity arrives in Kuwait in late October. Major-level points make it a more consequential stop than an ordinary week on tour, and the setting carries a positive memory: Galán and Chingotto won the FIP World Cup Pairs there in 2025. But history is not a shortcut. The court will not reward them for what happened last year, and the opponents who have beaten them in recent weeks will arrive with evidence that the second seeds can be disrupted.
The immediate objective should be straightforward: reach the final again. That may sound modest for a pair chasing the top of the world rankings, but it addresses the precise weakness of the last three tournaments. A major title would be valuable; getting through the early and middle rounds with disciplined, adaptable padel is the necessary foundation. Focusing only on Coello and Tapia risks overlooking the teams that have already denied Galán and Chingotto the chance to play them.
Three technical priorities stand out. First, their returns must create pressure without giving opponents cheap attacking balls. Second, their net positioning needs to remain coordinated when a rival increases the tempo, so one player is not repeatedly left covering too much space. Third, the pair has to manage momentum shifts more calmly. Milan showed that an outstanding first set is not enough if the next tactical response comes too late. Those are analysis points rather than claims about a private training plan, but they are the kinds of adjustments that determine whether a pair can control a long match.
There is a numerical reality as well. A roughly 2,900-point Race deficit cannot be erased by an improved attitude alone. The leaders would have to drop points while Galán and Chingotto collect significant results at the remaining events. It is a difficult scenario, and any honest assessment should acknowledge that Coello and Tapia still control their own destiny. The chase can nevertheless remain meaningful: closing the gap, winning a major and finishing the season with a clear tactical identity would all strengthen the pair's position going into 2027.
The coaching change makes that last point especially important. A strong Kuwait performance would not settle every question about next season, but it would demonstrate that the players can still respond together when challenged. Chingotto's commitment, which Martínez values so highly, gives the team a starting point. What the results now demand is that the commitment becomes sharper execution under pressure, not just another week of admirable effort.
Galán and Chingotto have not forgotten how to play elite padel. Their 2026 victories and their ability to dominate the opening set in Milan make that clear. The concern is that three straight tournaments have ended before the final, while the race leaders have gained ground and other challengers have learned they can turn matches around.
Martínez's public confidence in Chingotto offers a useful counterweight to the noise. A player who keeps learning is not the same as a pair that has already solved its problems. Kuwait will test whether the work on the practice court can restore the balance between control, aggression and composure. The season's biggest prize may be slipping away, but the chance to finish it as a convincing partnership is still there.
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