Rotterdam P2: Upsets, Three-Set Thrillers and One Clean Sweep in R16

One pair ranked last among the day's featured matches walked off court with the biggest result of the round. That alone tells you everything about how Rotterdam P2's round of 16 unfolded on the women's side.

The opening day of main draw action at the Rotterdam Ahoy produced exactly the kind of padel that makes P2 events worth watching: seeded pairs wobbling, qualifiers refusing to go away, and three matches pushed to a deciding tie-break. Only one result went anywhere close to plan from the first ball.

The Upset That Defined the Day

Léa Godallier and Daiara Valenzuela arrived as the lowest-ranked pair in their quarter of the draw and left with the cleanest scoreline of the entire round. They dismantled Marta Caparrós and Águeda Pérez 6-1, 6-3, with a comfort and authority that will have a few seeded pairs taking notice ahead of the round of 16. It was not a close match that swung late. Godallier and Valenzuela were simply better, from the first game to the last.

Three Matches, Three Tie-Breaks

The rest of the day belonged to the favorites, but none of them had an easy afternoon.

Marta Barrera and Jana Montes were pushed hardest by qualifier pair Camila Fassio and Amanda López, who have been one of the stories of this tournament since the qualifying rounds. Fassio and López won the opening set 6-2, and even after Barrera and Montes levelled with a 6-4 second, the third set went all the way to a tie-break before the seeded pair finally closed it out 7-6. A genuine scare.

Lorena Rufo and Victoria Iglesias went through a different kind of chaos. They took a tight first set 7-5, then completely lost the thread in the second, shipping a 0-6 to Noa Cánovas and Laia Rodríguez. The deciding set followed the same pattern as Barrera and Montes: maximum tension, resolved in a tie-break, 7-6 to the seeded pair. Two sets won, one lost 0-6, and still through to the last 16. Padel in one paragraph.

Rufo and Iglesias went from 7-5 in the first to 0-6 in the second, then held their nerve in a third-set tie-break. The kind of match that ages coaches.

Lucía Sainz and Sofía Saiz faced a different type of test. They dropped the opening set 2-6 to Araceli Martínez and Nati López, which is not the start any seeded pair wants. What followed was a controlled recovery: 6-3 in the second to level it, then a composed 6-2 in the third to book their place in the round of 16. Sainz and Saiz looked sharper as the match progressed, which is a good sign heading into a knockout tie.

The Pairs Who Made It Look Straightforward

Not everyone needed three sets. Bea Caldera and Carmen Goenaga handled Marta Borrero and Tere Navarro with efficiency, winning 6-4, 6-3. Their opponents, who came through qualifying, competed for long stretches but Caldera and Goenaga controlled the critical moments throughout.

Alix Collombon and Ksenia Sharifova also got through in two sets, 6-4, 6-3 against Sandra Bellver and Ana Domínguez. The first set required some work before Collombon and Sharifova broke clear, but once they had the advantage they managed the match well to the finish.

Virginia Riera and Julieta Bidahorria had the most comfortable evening of all, beating Lara Arruabarrena and Giorgia Marchetti 6-4, 6-2 in a match that never looked like going to a third.

And then there is Marta Talaván and Jessica Castelló, who are playing this tournament as their last together as a pair. They chose a good moment to produce a statement: 6-1, 6-2 against wild card entry Marcella Koek and Stephanie Weterings. Talaván and Castelló dominated from the first exchange and never gave the Dutch wild card pair a foothold. If this is their farewell tour, they are not going quietly.

The round of 16 is now set. With three matches already going to tie-breaks and a low-ranked pair taking out a seeded duo, Rotterdam is shaping up as one of the more unpredictable stops on the Premier Padel calendar this season.