The Premier Padel tour's Spanish midsummer showpiece is in full swing. The Málaga P1 runs from 11 to 19 July at the Martín Carpena Arena, with the main draw under way since Monday. At stake: €479,068 in prize money, 1,000 ranking points — and, for two men, a streak that is starting to look historic.
Five in a row?
Arturo Coello and Agustín Tapia arrive in Málaga as defending champions and as the tour's runaway No. 1 pair. At the Betclic Bordeaux P2 they edged Ale Galán and Federico Chingotto 5-7, 7-6, 6-2 in the final — a fourth consecutive title and their sixth of the season. A win this week would make it five in a row.
The rankings show the gap: Coello and Tapia sit on 21,409 points each in the FIP standings of 13 July, with Galán and Chingotto second on 17,677. And yet Bordeaux also showed that the great rivalry of men's padel still breathes — Galán and Chingotto took the first set and pushed the second to a tiebreak before the champions pulled away.
The Bordeaux earthquake reaches Andalusia
The women's storyline of the summer belongs to Icardo and Jensen. In Bordeaux they beat the world No. 1 pair Gemma Triay and Delfina Brea 3-6, 6-1, 6-1 in the final, having already eliminated the fourth and second seeds on the way — a run through seeds 4, 2 and 1 that stunned the tour. It was Icardo's first Premier Padel title and Jensen's first since Acapulco 2024, sealing a comeback after two and a half years without silverware. Now ranked as the fifth pair in the world, they arrive in Málaga as everyone's favourite dark horse.
The draw lost one contender before it began: Ariana Sánchez and Andrea Ustero withdrew on Monday after Ustero suffered a muscle tear, with lucky losers moving into the main draw. No date has been set for her return. Local hopes rest instead on Bea González, chasing a title on home soil.
Salazar's last dance begins
There is an emotional subplot too. Ale Salazar, playing her farewell season, makes her debut alongside new partner Aránzazu Osoro this week — a partnership announced only in early July. Seeded eighth, the pair are starting a "last dance" that will carry Salazar through her final year on tour, and Málaga is chapter one.
Deep in the men's draw lurks a piece of living history: Portuguese brothers Nuno and Miguel Deus, who won the longest match ever played in Premier Padel — 3 hours and 17 minutes, 6-7, 7-6, 6-3 against Piotto and Perino at the Milano P1, breaking a record that had stood since Mar del Plata 2024. Both are in the Málaga field.
What comes after Sunday
The finals are set for Sunday 19 July, and then the tour accelerates into new territory. The Pretoria P2 at the SunBet Arena from 27 July to 2 August will be the first Premier Padel tournament ever staged in Africa, followed by the London P1 at Olympia in early August — the tour's UK debut — before the Paris Major takes over Roland-Garros in September. First, though, Málaga has a question to answer: can anyone stop Coello and Tapia?
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The Padel Post editorial team covers professional padel worldwide — World Padel Tour, Premier Padel and beyond.