Portugal remain on the podium: Italy fight back but are beaten as the Deus brothers and Jesus-Perry seal the comeback

• The outcome is the same as in the 2024 third-place play-off: Abbate and Montiel secure the opening point for the Azzurri, but Portugal have the final say, claiming their second consecutive bronze medal.
  

 

DOHA – An incredible battle lasting more than five hours and eight sets, but Portugal have once again secured a place on the FIP World Cup podium, just as they did two years ago. After losing the first of the three matches in the tie, with Italy dreaming of the first World Cup bronze medal in their history, the team captained by Gervasio Del Bono turned things around to celebrate on Grand Stand 1 at the Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex in Doha. Italy therefore missed out on sporting revenge and had to settle for third place in the women’s competition: behind Spain and Argentina, the two superpowers of world padel, it is Portugal who take the podium once again.

 

 

Yet it was Flavio Abbate and Alvaro Montiel who claimed the opening point in a fiercely contested tie, beating Pedro Araujo and Pedro Graça 4-6 7-6 7-6 in a match that featured several tense moments. These included a disputed point for Portugal in the second-set tie-break and two match points saved by Italy, who eventually secured the win in the third set. The brothers Nuno Deus and Miguel Deus levelled the score with a three-set victory of their own (6-4 3-6 6-4) over Aris Patiniotis and Giulio Graziotti. The decisive point for Portugal came from Diogo Jesus and Pedro Perry, who, after a balanced first set against Simone Iacovino and Marco Cassetta – the pair who had beaten the Deus brothers to win bronze at the Mediterranean Games in Taranto last August – dominated the second set to seal a 6-4 6-1 victory in one hour and eight minutes.