Clasico or no Clasico? That is the question surrounding the arrival in Milan of the giants of world padel: will we see the eternal showdown between the two rivals again on Sunday, or will another pair find a way to exploit the small cracks left by the four best players on the planet? The head-to-head record suggests following the old saying that good things come in threes, given that the last titles here have been contested by these two pairs. However, recent weeks tell a different story: five of the last seven Premier Padel tournaments have not ended with a final between Arturo Coello and Agustin Tapia on one side and Fede Chingotto and Ale Galan on the other. The two pairs have not met since Paris. They have still won every tournament between them — the ‘Chingalan’ in Pretoria and Madrid, Arturito and Agus at Roland Garros, in Rotterdam and Düsseldorf, and before that in Malaga and London — but both have had occasional lapses along the way.
The winning streak belongs to the world number ones, who will face Arnau Ayats and Emilio Chamero in their opening match, the fourth of wednesday’s morning session. After the Paris Major — one of the two tournaments to feature the Clasico, the other being the London P1 — they also confirmed their current superiority in the Netherlands and Germany. In both finals, however, they faced Franco Stupaczuk and Jon Sanz, a recently formed partnership that has earned enough points over three consecutive Sundays — the FIP Gold in Lyon came before Rotterdam and Düsseldorf — to become the fourth-seeded pair. Keep an eye on them (they face Solano Marmolejo/Pereyra in the morning), and on Juan Lebron, a two-time champion at the Allianz Cloud (in 2022 and 2023 with Galan) who arrived in Italy on Monday to familiarise himself with the court, which he will share with Leo Augsburger. The number 3 seeds will make their debut at the end of the day against Fede Mouriño and Marc Quilez.
While Coello and Tapia arrive on the back of three consecutive titles, Chingotto and Galan — who are scheduled to face brothers Nuno Deus and Miguel Deus in the second match of the afternoon session, starting at 6 pm — can count on their outstanding record in Italy. They have won two Majors in Rome (2024 and 2025), one in Genoa (2024) and last year’s title in Milan, when they inflicted a stunning 6-0 scoreline in the deciding set on the world number ones. Their last two tournaments, however, ended in the quarter-finals in Rotterdam and the semi-finals in Düsseldorf, as though a small warning light had started flashing. Di Nenno/Navarro (5), Guerrero/Leal (6) and perhaps Gonzalez/Campagnolo (7), semi-finalists at the Foro Italico, will also be looking to prevent Clasico number 41.