The Circuit

The lead note

On Friday, in the last eight of the P1 in Milan, Ari Sanchez and Andrea Ustero beat Alejandra Salazar and Aranzazu Osoro 6-4, 6-3. The International Padel Federation's report of that round says the match was followed by an emotional farewell from the Milan crowd to a legend of the game. Two days later, on Sunday, the same pair won the final 7-6, 6-3 against Paula Josemaria and Bea Gonzalez, who had led 5-2 in the first set. The pair who put Salazar out went on to take the title. Setting the two beside each other is ours, not the Federation's.

We led our edition of 7 September on Salazar in Madrid, the last tournament she has played in her home city. This is the smaller fact that follows it, and it is worth keeping small: a quarter-final lost in straight sets, in a city that is not hers. She is 40, ranked fifteenth on the Federation's own page, with no titles in 2026. She said in July 2025 that she would stop at the end of this season, and she has not said Milan was her last tournament. Neither has anyone else, and we are not going to say it for her.

Arturo Coello and Agustin Tapia won the men's final 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 against Juan Lebron and Leandro Augsburger. The Federation prints no duration for either final. It makes this their fourth tournament in a row, naming Paris, Rotterdam, Dusseldorf and Milan, and their twelfth title of 2026; both counts are the Federation's, not ours. It also records that Lebron and Augsburger had lost their previous ten sets to the pair across the net. They had reached the final by beating Fede Chingotto and Ale Galan 0-6, 6-2, 6-2. Chingotto and Galan were defending the title, and lost it having won the first set to love.

The Federation gives each of its champions a ring, in the style of the NBA and the NFL. Ustero, in its Spanish report: "¿Qué es lo primero que haremos con este anillo? ¡Muchísimas fotos!" In our English: "What is the first thing we will do with this ring? A great many photographs."

Coello, in the same report: "Muchas gracias al público de Milán. Ganar aquí es una gran satisfacción." In our English: "Thank you very much to the Milan crowd. To win here is a great satisfaction."

At home

Last Monday we wrote that we could not establish who had won the FIP Silver at Stratford, and that when a result was published we would carry it. There was one. The Federation published its champions release on Monday 12 October, the morning we went out, and the LTA reported it the same day. So, a week late: Veronica Virseda and Martina Fassio beat Giulia Sussarello and Emily Stellato 6-2, 6-0 in the women's final on Sunday 11 October, and Javier Barahona and Ignacio Piotto beat Alvaro Cepero and Andres Fernandez Lancha 7-6, 6-3 in the men's.

The British end is The Padel Paper's reporting, and we carry it as the paper's. Catherine Rose and Aimee Gibson both went out in the quarter-finals through injury, Rose's her own and Gibson's her partner's; Rose and Rebeca Lopez retired 6-1, 4-3 down. We are not naming the pair who were leading them, nor the British pair beaten 6-2, 6-1 in the last sixteen by the eventual champions. Each pair contains a player of 16, and we do not name, age, locate or describe anyone under 18. In the first case that costs an adult her name too. Better to leave the gap visible than tidy it away. Rose played in Seville the following weekend, again with Lopez, winning 6-2, 2-6, 6-2. We make no line between the two.

The week ahead

The last two places at the FIP World Cup are decided at the Federation's Asia and Africa qualifier in Kuwait, from Monday 26 to Friday 30 October, one in each draw. The World Cup itself is in Doha from Monday 2 to Saturday 7 November, and two weeks out the Federation has published no draw and no schedule. The UK Padel Convention is on Wednesday 4 November at The Padel Club, Gloucester Quays. It is run by The Padel Directory, whose George Modler was our guest on Episode One of The Sessions.

From the club

Issue Four of The Alborán, dated 6 October, is the current issue, and Episode Four of The Sessions, "Padel Drive", the current episode.

See you at the club.

How this was compiled. Every source behind this edition, and what we took from each.