Two tournaments. Two defeats to the same pair. And a Milan P1 title defence starting this week with more questions than answers.
Ale Galán and Fede Chingotto have been the second best team in the world for two seasons running. In most sports, that is a career. In padel right now, it might be the problem. Because every time they get close, Arturo Coello and Agustín Tapia find another gear, and the gap at the top never really closes.
Ale Galán was number one for three consecutive years alongside the iconic Juan Lebrón. Their partnership is still spoken about today, but a falling out ended their reign and it is unlikely to be seen again.
So here’s the question nobody in their camp wants to hear: is it time they split up?
The last fortnight
The alarm bells started in Rotterdam. On 2 October, Franco Stupaczuk and Jon Sanz beat Galán and Chingotto 6-4 6-4 in the quarter-finals of the Rotterdam P2. It was the first time in almost seven months that Chingalán had failed to reach a final.
One week later in Düsseldorf, as defending champions, they got their chance at revenge. Same opponents, same outcome. Stupaczuk and Sanz won the semi-final 7-6 6-4, denying fans another Clásico final. Coello and Tapia then beat Stupaczuk and Sanz 6-2 7-6 to lift their 11th title of the season.
And it’s not just the last two weeks. Before Rotterdam came the Paris Major final, where Coello and Tapia edged them 6-3 4-6 7-6. Close, again. Not close enough, again.
| Tournament | Round | Result | Opponents |
|---|---|---|---|
| Germany P2, Düsseldorf | Semi-final | Lost 7-6 6-4 | Stupaczuk / Sanz |
| Rotterdam P2 | Quarter-final | Lost 6-4 6-4 | Stupaczuk / Sanz |
| Paris Major | Final | Lost 6-3 4-6 7-6 | Coello / Tapia |
| Madrid P1 | Final | Won 6-4 5-7 6-4 | Nieto / Yanguas |
To be fair, this is still an elite team. They have seven titles in 2026, including the Italy Major and a Buenos Aires P1 final where they thrashed the world number ones 6-2 6-1. But the spring was theirs. The autumn belongs to Coello and Tapia, who have now won Paris, Rotterdam and Düsseldorf back to back.
How the FIP points system works
To understand why those exits hurt so much, you need to know how the rankings are built. Every Premier Padel event falls into a tier, and the deeper you go, the more points you bank.
| Tournament tier | Winner | Finalist | Semi-final | Quarter-final |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Major | 2,000 | 1,200 | 720 | 360 |
| P1 | 1,000 | 600 | 360 | 180 |
| P2 | 600 | 360 | 180 | 90 |
| Premier Padel Finals | 1,500 | 900 | 600 (3rd), 400 (4th) | 270 |
Every round you fall short roughly halves your points acquired. A P2 quarter-final is worth 90 points, less than a sixth of the 600 the champions take home. The system incentivizes selectivity: pairs who know they won’t reach a quarterfinal at a P2 may instead target the final of a concurrent FIP Gold event. Therefore, pairs carefully pick and choose which tournaments to attend to maximize points over their best 22 results.
Three rules matter most:
- Best 22 results count. Your FIP ranking is built from your 22 best results across Premier Padel and the CUPRA FIP Tour.
- Points last 52 weeks. Every point expires one year after you earn it. To keep it, you have to match or beat last year’s result at the same event. Win Düsseldorf in 2025 and you’re defending those points in Düsseldorf in 2026.
- The Race is a separate table. It only counts 2026 results. The Race shows who’s had the better year. The FIP ranking shows who’s world number one.
That defence rule is why the last fortnight was so costly. Chingalán were defending champions in Düsseldorf; Coello and Tapia were defending Rotterdam. One pair held their ground, the other gave it away.
Always close, never number one
Here’s the uncomfortable bit. Galán and Chingotto have been the clear second-best team for three seasons, and Coello and Tapia have finished every one of them at the top.
| Season | Coello / Tapia titles | Galán / Chingotto titles | Year-end No. 1 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 14 | 5 | Coello / Tapia |
| 2025 | 13 (incl. Finals) | 8 | Coello / Tapia |
| 2026 (so far) | 11 | 7 | Coello / Tapia lead |
The story of 2025 was the same. Chingalán won the FIP World Cup Pairs and the Italy Major, but Coello and Tapia clinched the year-end top spot at the Mexico Major, then beat them in the Finals in Barcelona for good measure.
2026 was supposed to be different. Chingalán won five of the first eight events, led the Race and beat the world number ones four times in ten weeks. Then the Majors came round. Coello and Tapia have won two this year. Galán and Chingotto have won none. That’s where the whole gap comes from.
After Paris, the FIP ranking had Coello and Tapia on 20,454 points and Chingalán on 18,289, a gap of 2,165. Red Bull worked out that once Coello and Tapia’s expiring 2025 points were stripped out, the real target was 1,270 points over the last seven weeks. Very doable.
Then Rotterdam and Düsseldorf happened. Coello and Tapia picked up 600 points at each. Chingalán took 90 for the Rotterdam quarter-final and 180 for the Düsseldorf semi. That’s a 930-point swing in two weeks, pushing the real target past 2,200 points, with only Milan, the Kuwait Major, Dubai, the Mexico Major and the Finals left to claw it back.
So, should they split?
The case for. Three seasons, three second places. When it matters most, in the Majors and the Finals, Coello and Tapia keep finding a way. Galán has done this before: he left Juan Lebrón and later admitted he should have done it sooner. If the ceiling of this partnership is number two, a fresh start might be the only way to break it.
The case against. This is still one of the best teams padel has ever seen. Seven titles this year, a 4-1 head-to-head lead over the number ones by mid-May, and a Buenos Aires final where they made Coello and Tapia look ordinary. Who would they even switch to? There’s no obvious partner out there who makes either of them better.
The Proper Padel verdict. Not yet. Two losses to an in-form Stupaczuk and Sanz is a blip, not a crisis. But the next seven weeks will decide it. With a Milan title defence starting today and two Majors to come, Chingalán need to prove they can win the big ones. If 2026 ends the same way as 2024 and 2025, the split conversation won’t be a headline anymore. It’ll be a press release.
What do you think? Is it time, or are we overreacting? Let us know.
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