Why is padel a unique sport? Because everything can change in an instant. Can a final be summed up in a single point? Yes. It all happened in the third game of the second set: Juan Lebron and Leo Augsburger had already won the first set after Arturo Coello and Agustin Tapia had taken the previous ten sets in a row between them. At 15-40, with their second of three break points, Augsburger had the chance to deliver a potentially decisive blow. However, Leo failed to control his smash and the ball hit the glass. Coello and Tapia saved the third break point too, won the star point in the following game and pulled away towards their 12th title of 2026, their fourth in a row after Paris, Rotterdam and Düsseldorf, and their second at the Allianz Cloud (4-6 6-3 6-2) following their 2024 triumph.
“Thank you so much to the Milan crowd. Winning here is a great feeling”, said Coello. “It was a very difficult match, especially because Leo and Juan played better than us in the first set. We had only one way to win: keep playing, and that’s what we did”. Tapia added: “An incredible week in a beautiful city. We ran, we fought, we gave everything we had in the third set of our third final in three weeks, and we did it. We’re delighted with this title; now it’s time to get some rest”.
The moral of the story is that to beat giants, you cannot afford to make mistakes. Or, at least, you cannot make them at decisive moments. Coello and Tapia are giants partly because, from that point onwards, they managed to take control of the match and turn it in their favour. And if Augsburger’s error was not enough, Tapia produced a moment of magic from outside the court, recovering an X3 and creating the opportunity for another break in the opening game of the third set. Lebron and Augsburger could no longer match the pace set by Coello and Tapia, who may give their opponents one opening, but never two.