Paris Major: Tapia and Coello escape defeat as Sanchez and Ustero take command

Agustin Tapia and Arturo Coello were a service game from defeat before turning the Paris Major 2026 men's Final back their way. Their 6-3 4-6 7-6 victory over Alejandro Galan and Federico Chingotto supplied the suspense on Philippe-Chatrier; Ariana Sanchez Fallada and Andrea Ustero Prieto supplied the certainty, beating Claudia Fernandez Sanchez and Martina Calvo Santamaria 6-2 6-0 to claim the women's title.

Both winning pairs left Roland Garros with a trophy, but the routes through the closing matches could scarcely have differed more. Tapia and Coello had to recover a break in the deciding set, then settled the contest with a 7-1 tie-break. Sanchez and Ustero allowed their opponents just two games. One Final turned on a last chance seized; the other gave the challengers little room to work.

For the men's top seeds, the danger came after an encouraging start. A break for 5-3 put the opening set within reach, only for Galan and Chingotto to take the second and move ahead in the third. When the second seeds served for the match, the title was within their grasp. Tapia and Coello broke back, taking the contest towards a tie-break that they won with a much clearer margin than the match itself.

The numbers underline that distinction. Across the men's Final, Tapia and Coello won 52% of the points to their opponents' 48%. The title came from a narrow overall advantage, followed by a decisive finish. For a pair coming off an early exit in Madrid, Paris brought a response that required more than simply rediscovering a comfortable winning rhythm.

Their passage into the Final had been less complicated. They beat Francisco Guerrero and Javier Leal 6-2 7-5 in the Quarter-final, then Leo Augsburger and Juan Lebron 7-5 6-3 in the Semi-final. Galan and Chingotto arrived through a 7-6 6-2 win against Edu Alonso and Aimar Goñi, followed by a 7-5 6-2 victory over Martin Di Nenno and Francisco Navarro.

Even those straight-set results conceal some of the resistance along the way. Navarro and Di Nenno broke first in both sets of their Semi-final before Galan and Chingotto recovered. The sixth seeds had already changed the shape of their section by overturning Franco Stupaczuk and Jon Sanz 4-6 6-1 6-4 in the Quarter-final. They could not carry that upset through to a place in the title match.

Augsburger and Lebron had also needed an escape earlier in the week. In the Round of 16, they lost the opening set to Javi Barahona and Maxi Sanchez Blasco and saved a second-set set point before winning 4-6 7-6 6-4. Alonso and Goñi, meanwhile, reached the Quarter-final as the only men's pair outside the top eight seeds, having beaten Coki Nieto and Mike Yanguas 6-4 6-3.

The women's champions had their difficult passages before the Final. Third seeds Sanchez and Ustero needed three sets to get past Alejandra Salazar Bengoechea and Aranzazu Osoro Ulrich 6-3 3-6 6-2 in the Quarter-final. In the Semi-final, Marta Ortega Gallego and Sofia Araujo took the first set before Sanchez and Ustero answered with a 5-7 6-4 6-1 victory.

Ortega and Araujo had earned that opportunity through one of the week's most demanding matches. Against Paula Josemaria Martin and Beatriz Gonzalez Fernandez in the Quarter-final, they saved five match points and won 2-6 7-6 7-6. The match lasted three hours and 13 minutes. Their next opponents also knew what it meant to be pushed into a third set, but Sanchez and Ustero came through again.

Fernandez and Calvo reached the Final with a result that made the eventual scoreline especially striking. The fourth seeds defeated top seeds and defending champions Gemma Triay Pons and Delfina Brea Senesi 6-4 6-2 in the Semi-final. That followed their recovery against Marina Guinart and Alejandra Alonso De Villa, whom they beat 2-6 6-2 6-4 in the Quarter-final.

Those wins established the challengers' credentials; they did not bring another close contest on Sunday. Sanchez and Ustero followed their two three-set victories with a Final in which they dropped no games in the second set. For Fernandez and Calvo, it was nevertheless a first Major final together in only their fourth tournament as a partnership, after earlier finals in Pretoria and London.

For Ustero, Paris was a first Major title following an injury that had kept her out of Malaga and Pretoria. The winning pair had also reached the final in Rome, and this was their third tournament victory of 2026, after Riyadh and Valencia. “We played a perfect final,” Ustero said. After the complications of the preceding rounds, the score gave that assessment a firm foundation.

The week also offered a milestone beyond the title contenders. Thomas Leygue, returning after an Achilles tendon injury suffered in Rome the previous year, became the first French man to reach a Premier Padel Major's Round of 16. He and Jesus Moya came through qualifying and beat Juanlu Esbri and Sanyo Gutierrez 6-2 4-6 7-5, giving the home tournament a story that did not depend on reaching its final weekend.

Paris ultimately belonged to four champions whose closing performances offered different answers to pressure. Sanchez and Ustero made their toughest work count before delivering a clear-cut Final. Tapia and Coello had to find their answer with defeat close enough to touch. The trophies rewarded both approaches: authority in the women's title match, and a recovery that changed the men's.

Header image source: International Padel Federation (FIP).