It’s Gala’s night: with Garcia he reaches a historic quarterfinal against Yanguas-Nieto. Gemma-Delfi go through

It was the NextGen derby, full of talent. On court, facing each other, were “the boys from Krakow”, the Spaniards Alonso Rodriguez and David Gala, who were key players in Spain’s gold medal at the 2023 European Games in Poland. Rodriguez played with the left-handed Argentinian Ignacio Juani Rubini, while Gala teamed up with fellow Madrilenian Pablo Garcia. And everyone expected a show.

On Court 2 of the Rafa Nadal Academy, the four young players (Gala and Rubini born in 2006, Rodriguez and Garcia in 2003) played great padel, showing their recent progress — and it’s no coincidence that Gala-Garcia had already eliminated Di Nenno-Augsburger, the number 5 seeds — after strong results on the CUPRA FIP Tour, where Garcia came in with three straight titles and Gala with two. The final score, 6-4, 7-6, after a big comeback by Rodriguez-Rubini in the second set up to the tiebreak, perfectly reflected a match between the sport’s rising stars. After all, if David Gala has been called “the chosen one” and the brightest gem of Spain’s new generation, there’s a reason. And there’s no doubt that, for both Gala and Garcia, this is the most important result of their careers so far. Before the FIP World Cup Pairs, Gala’s best result was a quarterfinal (with Campagnolo) at Tarragona P1 2025, where he lost 6-2, 6-2 to Yanguas-Nieto. Garcia had only reached a Premier Padel quarterfinal once before, at Brussels P2 2024, losing 6-3, 6-3 to Chingotto-Galan. But reaching the top eight in a World Cup means much more — in importance, prestige, and ranking points. Speaking of ranking: Gala started the season ranked 76th and Garcia 73rd in the FIP ranking. Before the World Cup, they were 42nd and 51st. Now, at worst, the 360 points from the World Cup quarterfinals are already secured. Next, they’ll face Coki Nieto and Miguel “Mike” Yanguas (7-6, 6-3 against Gutierrez-Alfonso), the number 4 seeds — one step above Di Nenno-Augsburger.

In the women’s draw, top seeds Gemma Triay and Delfi Brea confirmed their great form, winning 6-2, 6-2 over the number 10 pair Caldera-Goenaga.