Clément Geens at Milano P1 2026 saw his run end in the round of 32. Alongside Dylan Guichard, the Belgian beat Antonio Fernández and Mario Del Castillo 6-1, 6-2 before losing 7-5, 7-6 to tenth seeds Edu Alonso and Aimar Goñi.
Belgium’s highest-ranked man in the FIP rankings, Geens was world No. 69 with 905 points on 12 October. There was another reason to be pleased in Milan: for the first time together, he and Guichard entered a Premier Padel main draw directly. Geens was happy with their level, but left with regrets.
Directly into the main draw for the first time
What made Milan a special tournament for you both?
It was the first time Dylan and I had gone straight into a Premier Padel main draw, without an invitation, without a wild card and without playing qualifying. That already made it a special tournament for us. We were happy.
You started with a comfortable win against Fernández and Del Castillo. Were you happy with the draw?
We avoided the top sixteen seeds in the draw. There are lots of difficult teams, but we got a relatively good draw. Our opponents, like us, were among the last pairs to get straight into the main draw. We played on centre court, early in the morning, and put in a good match. Everything went well.
You had a different coach on your bench in Milan?
Yes, we had Cristian Gutiérrez, one of the coaches at Dylan’s academy. Usually we’re with another coach from the academy. This time we made a change and it went very well.
‘We felt there was a chance’ against Alonso and Goñi
There were over 48 hours between your matches. Was that unusual?
We played on Monday morning and then again on Wednesday evening. That’s more than 48 hours between matches, which is a bit unusual. It’s quite rare.
Did you feel you could beat the tenth seeds?
We started the match well. They’re very strong players, but they weren’t in the best run of form either. So we knew we had a chance. We played well from beginning to end.
How do you look back on the second round?
We’re proud of ourselves. But of course we’re disappointed and a bit sad, because we felt there was a chance to win the match, or at least take it to a third set. We didn’t manage that.
What was missing to force a third set?
We didn’t manage to take a few small opportunities. But I think our overall level was good and our attitude was good. We need to keep going like this and hopefully it’ll come together one day.
