Coki Nieto wanted to continue with Jon Sanz. In an interview with Padel Addict from Mumbai, the Madrid player said he had asked to keep the project going before Sanz chose Franco Stupaczuk. The split clarifies the latest reshuffle ahead of Premier Padel’s return in Madrid.
Coki Nieto wanted to continue with Jon Sanz
The clearest point in the interview concerns how the split began. Nieto says he spoke to Sanz as soon as the first rumours appeared and told him he wanted to stay together. He felt their partnership still had real complementarity.
Speaking to Padel Addict, Coki Nieto summed up his position in a faithful translation from Spanish:
I wanted to continue because I think we are a complementary pair, but he decided to play with Stupa.
The memory of 2024 adds context to that choice. Nieto and Sanz won the Bordeaux P2 and then the Premier Padel Finals in Barcelona against Arturo Coello and Agustín Tapia. Their 2026 reunion therefore started with strong shared references.
Nieto does not describe their first half of the season as a failure. He notes that he missed the first tournament of the year after an injury, says the two players had limited time to train together and believes they still won several solid matches. He also acknowledges defeats they would have preferred to avoid.
Jon Sanz was looking for a different feeling on court
Jon Sanz’s version completes the picture given by his former partner. In an interview published a few days earlier by the same outlet, the player from Navarre said he had not recovered the feeling they had in 2024. He also said he was no longer satisfied with the direction of their game and some of their results.
The two accounts point in the same direction: neither player presents their personal relationship as the main problem. Nieto says he remains very fond of Sanz and accepts that the opportunity to play with Stupaczuk could carry weight in such a decision. Sanz’s choice opens a new sporting stage without a public dispute between the two Spaniards.
Sanz joins Stupaczuk, Nieto returns to Yanguas
Jon Sanz and Franco Stupaczuk have since made their partnership official on social media. Nieto, meanwhile, is returning to Mike Yanguas, a partner he already knows after playing with him in 2022 and throughout the 2025 season.
The two new pairings will be tested quickly. The Comunidad de Madrid P1 is scheduled by the FIP from 29 August to 6 September. Nieto will look to recover the patterns he built with Yanguas in their previous spell. Sanz will have to build a new balance with Stupaczuk after choosing to close the project with Coki.
