Premier Padel confirmed on Saturday 24 October that Alejandro Galán and Federico Chingotto will not play the Kuwait Major. The pair, seeded second, withdrew before the main draw because of an injury to Galán, and a lucky loser will take their place in the bracket. It is a strange way for a season-long fight to end: the biggest tournament of the autumn swing lost one of its two headline acts a day before it began, and with that the men's race for the year-end number one effectively stopped being a race at all.
Galán announced the news himself on Instagram, in the short, careful language players use when they do not yet know how bad something is. "Unfortunately, I will miss the Premier Padel Kuwait Major due to an injury," he wrote. "I hope to return to the court soon." Neither he nor Premier Padel has said what the injury is, how serious it is, or how long he will be out. Spanish reports described it as a minor problem that did not settle in time, and noted that he had played three events in three weeks before Kuwait.
An Injury Nobody Has Explained
The silence around the diagnosis is the part that matters beyond this week. The withdrawal comes at the end of a European swing of Rotterdam, Düsseldorf and Milan in consecutive weeks, and it lands two weeks before the World Championships in Doha, which begin on 2 November. If the problem is as slight as the first reports suggest, Galán could still be on court for Spain. If it is not, Spain's left side narrows sharply in the week that decides the team title, and the 2027 season starts with a question mark over one of the sport's leading players.
For now, the only confirmed fact is the withdrawal. Anything beyond it is speculation, and Premier Padel has not offered a timeline.
Why One Absence Decides The Year
The maths explains why this is more than a bad break for one player. Coello and Tapia arrived in Kuwait with a lead of 2,980 points over Chingotto and Galán in the FIP Race. The Kuwait Major awards 2,000 points to each champion, and with the withdrawal removing the only pair close enough to overtake them, a title this week would make the Spanish-Argentine pair number one on the tour for the fourth consecutive season.
Even a poor week would probably be enough. Four events remain after Kuwait, and around 6,500 points are still on the table across them, but a gap of that size cannot be closed by a pair that is not entered. Marca put it bluntly in its preview: Chingotto and Galán needed a miracle even before Galán pulled out.
The ranking is not a simple running total, which is why the arithmetic holds. It counts each player's 22 best results of the season across Premier Padel and the CUPRA FIP Tour, so a pair that missed a week can sometimes absorb the damage. Missing the biggest points event of the final stretch is not one of those cases.
The Autumn That Got Away From Chingalán
The season did not slip away in Kuwait. It went in Paris, in September, in a final that has been replayed in Spanish padel coverage ever since. Chingotto and Galán lost the first set 6-3, took the second 6-4, and then served for the title at 5-3 in the decider. They lost the game, lost the tiebreak 7-1, and lost the match 6-3, 4-6, 7-6.
What followed was worse than one defeat. Semi-final exits in Rotterdam, Düsseldorf and Milan followed in quick succession, three tournaments without a final for a pair that had reached finals almost as a habit. By the time the tour reached Kuwait, they needed to win a Major and hope for an early exit from the other half of the draw. Instead, they are not playing.
What It Means For The Draw
Coello and Tapia start as top seeds, and the bracket has not been kind even with their main rivals gone. The projected route runs through Garrido and De Pascual in the last 16, Yanguas and Nieto in the quarter-finals, and Lebrón and Augsburger in the semi-finals. Franco Stupaczuk and Jon Sanz, on the other side, look like the most dangerous pair outside the top seeding.
Mike Yanguas and Coki Nieto are worth watching. Nieto missed Düsseldorf and Milan with physical discomfort and returns here as part of the sixth-seeded team, a pair that finished runners-up at the Madrid P1 in September. The men's draw also has an unusual number of new partnerships, led by Tolito Aguirre and Pablo Lijó, who enter as the highest-ranked of the fresh teams.
A lucky loser, meanwhile, inherits the best seat in the house and the worst one: a main-draw place opposite the top seed's half, with nothing to lose and a ranking that says he should not be there.
The Women's Race Is Where The Drama Moved
If the men's number one is settled, the women's is anything but. Gemma Triay and Delfi Brea lead the FIP Race and are trying to stay at the top for a second consecutive season, but they have not won a title since the Madrid P1 in the spring, despite reaching four straight semi-finals.
Behind them, Ari Sánchez and Andrea Ustero have won three of the last four tour events: the Paris Major, Rotterdam and Milan. They sit second in the Race, 1,980 points behind the leaders with 6,500 still available. Bea González and Paula Josemaría, level with Triay and Brea on six titles this season, are close enough that a good week in Kuwait puts them back in the argument too.
Three pairs, one title, and a gap that can shrink fast. That is a much better contest than the men's draw will give us this week.
The Finals Bubble Is The Other Story
The Kuwait Major is also the last big chance to qualify for the Tour Finals, which bring the top 16 players in the FIP Race to the Palau Sant Jordi in Barcelona from 10 to 13 December. Six men have already secured their places: Tapia, Coello, Chingotto, Galán, Juan Lebrón and Leo Augsburger. Ten spots remain open.
The cut sits with Momo González in 13th on 3,079 points, Lucas Campagnolo in 14th on 3,047, Coki Nieto in 15th on 2,964 and Javi Leal in 16th on 2,943. Behind them, Juan Tello, Edu Alonso, Maxi Arce and Jairo Bautista are all past the 22-tournament limit, which means every point from here has to be earned rather than protected. On the women's side, eight places have been decided and eight are still open, with Sofia Araújo, Martita Ortega, Claudia Jensen and Tamara Icardo closest to safety.
For a club player who follows the tour, this is the part of the season that is easiest to enjoy. The ranking maths is legible, the stakes are personal, and the players on the bubble are the ones who treat a first-round match like a final.
Kuwait, Three Seasons In
This is Kuwait's third consecutive year as a padel capital of sorts. The country joined the tour in 2024 with a P1, hosted the FIP World Cup Pairs last season, and now stages a Major. It is the first tournament at this level played indoors, split between The Arena Kuwait and the Rafa Nadal Academy, and it carries a prize pool of €1,044,849 alongside the 2,000 ranking points.
The timing is deliberate. Kuwait is the opening act of a three-week Middle East swing that continues with the FIP World Cup in Doha and the Dubai P1 from 8 to 15 November, before the Mexico Major from 22 to 30 November and the Finals in Barcelona.
What To Watch This Week
Three things are worth the time. First, whether Coello and Tapia close the deal without drama; a fourth straight season at number one is a genuine achievement, and it will be remembered longer than the walkover it looks like on paper. Second, the women's draw, where the number one ranking is live and the top three pairs all have a route to it. Third, the qualifiers and lucky losers, who arrive with nothing to defend and everything to gain.
And then there is Galán, who will be watching from Spain and hoping his season is not finished. The tour moves on quickly, as it always does. The padel calendar does not wait for anyone, which is exactly why a withdrawal in Kuwait in October can decide how the whole year is remembered.
Kuwait runs to 31 October. The Finals are in Barcelona in December, and the World Championships in Doha start on 2 November.
