What a celebration in Asunción! Paraguay secure a double qualification. Chile’s women’s team clinch its ticket for Doha

Qualifying for the World Cup is a special moment in a player’s career, but doing so in the capital of their own country, in front of the home crowd, is a memory that will last a lifetime. The players of Paraguay know this well, as on the final day of the FIP World Cup Qualifiers-South America, held in Asunción from 20 to 22 August, they secured qualification for the Doha World Cup in both the men’s and women’s events (finishing top of the group in both cases).

 

In the men’s event, Paraguay’s decisive result was a clear 3-0 victory over Uruguay. In match 1, Pierre Petit-Sebastian Rodriguez defeated Martin Araujo-Diego Sebastian Ramos (7-6 6-4). Then Martin Abud-Samuel Miltos defeated Nicolas Rosas-Franco Soria (6-2 6-0), sealing the result and prompting celebrations on court, where the team’s players sang and danced to celebrate the achievement. The national team showed great consistency throughout the qualifying tournament, without conceding a single match. “We have qualified for the World Cup!” said Abud. “The whole team did a great job.” After the celebrations in the men’s event, the women’s team also secured qualification. The Paraguayan players completed the job by winning both of their Day 3 matches: first against Ecuador (2-1), and then against Venezuela (3-0). In both ties, the decisive matches were won by the duo Mariana Salsamendi-Maria Alejandra Vera: against Ecuador, they defeated Ana Paula Gamarra-Alexandra Valeria Cepeda in the third match (6-0 6-1), while against Venezuela they secured qualification with a victory over Valeria Rothe-Sol Alejandra Leone (6-3 6-2).

 

There was also another qualification place available in Paraguay for the second-placed team in the women’s group: Chile secured it, defeating Venezuela 3-0 on Day 3 and losing to Uruguay (2-1). Chile finished the group on six points, level with Uruguay and Venezuela, but qualified thanks to the better score across the individual matches. The Chilean women will travel to Qatar alongside the men’s national team, which did not take part in the FIP World Cup Qualifiers-South America because it had already qualified for Doha by finishing among the top nine national teams at the FIP World Championships 2024. “Chile’s women are going to the World Cup once again! Thank you to the whole team for giving us this qualification,” said the team’s delegate and captain, Noa Suarez.

 

With the South American qualifying stage now concluded, two more events will complete the line-up of teams travelling to Doha: the FIP World Cup 2026 Qualifiers – Europe, to be held in Madrid from 22 to 26 September, with two qualification places available in each draw, and the joint Africa-Asia tournament, which will award the final two available places. A total of 32 national teams, 16 in the men’s event and 16 in the women’s event, will compete at the Doha World Cup, scheduled to take place from 2 to 7 November.

 

Teams already qualified for the FIP World Cup 2026:

 

MEN: Argentina, Spain, Portugal, Italy, United Arab Emirates, Brazil, France, Chile, Sweden, USA, Mexico, Paraguay and Qatar.

 

WOMEN: Spain, Argentina, Italy, Portugal, Netherlands, Sweden, France, Brazil, Belgium, USA, Paraguay, Chile and Qatar.