The Italy Major's most decorated seeded pairing did not survive the last 16. Franco Stupaczuk and Miguel Yanguas, ranked sixth and seventh in the draw, went out in straight sets to Jerónimo González and Lucas Campagnolo. It was the sharpest result of a day that also handed Giulia Dal Pozzo a home run to the semifinals.
Jerónimo González / Lucas Campagnolo 6-4 7-6 Franco Stupaczuk / Miguel Yanguas
On the numbers this should have gone the other way. González sits 14th and Campagnolo 21st; Stupaczuk and Yanguas arrived as the sixth and seventh seeds. The lower-ranked pair ignored the gap entirely.
González and Campagnolo take the first set 6-4 and refuse to let the second drift. Stupaczuk and Yanguas drag it back to 6-6, but the underdogs hold their nerve through the tiebreak to close it 7-6 and seal the straight-sets win. Campagnolo, the former goalkeeper, punishes anything loose off the glass; González runs the drive side and rarely misses.
For Stupaczuk and Yanguas, a partnership still finding its rhythm, an early exit costs valuable ranking points. It also blows open the bottom half of the men's draw.
Nuria Rodríguez / Giulia Dal Pozzo 6-4 0-6 7-6 Carolina Orsi / Patricia Llaguno
Nuria Rodríguez and Giulia Dal Pozzo needed three sets and a final-set tiebreak to see off Carolina Orsi and Patricia Llaguno. The middle set was as lopsided as padel gets: a 6-0 bagel that levelled the match and looked, briefly, like a turning point against them.
They take the opener 6-4, are shut out completely in the second, and steady themselves in the decider. At 6-6 the third goes to a tiebreak, and Rodríguez and Dal Pozzo hold it 7-6. It was the first leg of a very long day for the pair.
Nuria Rodríguez / Giulia Dal Pozzo 3-6 6-3 6-2 Sofía Araújo / Claudia Fernández
Then came the bigger scalp. Sofía Araújo and Claudia Fernández, seeded on rankings of eight and six, were beaten by a pair operating well outside the top 20 — Dal Pozzo is ranked 50th. On seeding, this was the day's clearest women's upset.
Araújo and Fernández take the first set 6-3 and look in command. Rodríguez and Dal Pozzo turn it, levelling with a 6-3 second and then pulling clear to 6-2 in the third. Dal Pozzo, playing on home soil, feeds off the crowd as the match slips away from the seeds.
The reward is a semifinal place, earned by knocking out two seeded pairs inside a single day. It is comfortably the run of the tournament so far.
Arturo Coello / Agustín Tapia 6-1 6-1 David Gala / Enzo Jensen
The world No. 1 pair needed barely an hour. Arturo Coello and Agustín Tapia dismissed David Gala and Enzo Jensen 6-1 6-1, conceding just two games. Jensen, ranked 59th, found no way into the exchanges as Tapia's bandeja and Coello's overhead did the rest.
Gemma Triay / Delfina Brea 6-1 6-1 Patricia Martínez / Claudia Escacena
The top women's pair matched their male counterparts to the game. Gemma Triay and Delfina Brea beat Patricia Martínez and Claudia Escacena 6-1 6-1, a routine last-16 assignment dispatched without alarm and without dropping serve of note.
Tomorrow the draws thin out. Dal Pozzo and Rodríguez, the story of the day, face a far stiffer test in the last four, while the vacated bottom half of the men's draw is now anyone's to claim.