Yanguas-Nieto and Stupaczuk-Sanz at Madrid P1: 21 points reshaping padel’s top five

The change in a short timeline

The starting point is London. Stupaczuk and Yanguas lost their opening London P1 match to José Solano and Ramiro Pereyra, before the Argentine announced the end of their second partnership on 6 August. A few days later, Coki Nieto and Jon Sanz also announced the end of their second spell together.

The four players then regrouped into two pairs. Yanguas and Nieto appear together for Madrid. Stupaczuk and Sanz are also registered as partners. The official Comunidad de Madrid P1 page schedules the event from 29 August to 6 September, with the main draw from 1 to 6 September at Movistar Arena. Registration closes on 12 August at 17:00 CET.

The 2026 Premier Padel regulations state that pair acceptance uses the combined FIP ranking available at the registration deadline. Seeding is ordered using the latest ranking update available when the draw is made. The 21-point gap is therefore a precise snapshot of the current situation, not a guarantee frozen until the first rally.

The top five here refers to pairs

The phrase “top five” can be misleading. Individually, in the FIP ranking dated 10 August, Stupaczuk is No. 7 with 6,570 points, Yanguas No. 8 with 6,381, Nieto No. 10 with 5,316 and Sanz No. 12 with 5,106. Combining the new partners’ points gives Yanguas-Nieto 11,697 against 11,676 for Stupaczuk-Sanz.

That difference can become a draw advantage. The regulations place seeds 3 and 4 in a separate group from seeds 5 to 8. In a standard draw, the No. 4 pair therefore cannot meet one of the top three seeds before the semifinals. The No. 5 pair can face a top-four team in the quarterfinals.

With only 21 points between them, the sporting debate is tied directly to the mechanics of the draw. Moving one seed does not change a pair’s intrinsic level, but it can bring the first meeting with a favourite one round earlier.

Yanguas-Nieto: the strength of a partnership they already know

The first advantage is straightforward. Yanguas and Nieto do not need to learn how to play together. They shared the whole 2025 season and had already partnered in 2022. Their FIP pages record 62 Premier Padel matches each in 2025, with 41 wins and 21 defeats. Their shared win rate was therefore 66.13%.

Their basic court positions are also established. FIP lists Yanguas on the right and Nieto on the left. The reunion does not require either player to switch into an unfamiliar side. Their references on middle lobs, net coverage and priority on intermediate balls can be reactivated rather than built from scratch.

Madrid offers another concrete reference. In 2025, Yanguas and Nieto reached the Madrid P1 semifinals. Nieto was born in Madrid. Their reunion therefore begins at a tournament where they have both a recent sporting benchmark and, for Coki, a particular local setting.

The weakness is known: 41 wins, no title in 2025

Returning to a familiar formula does not erase its previous limit. Despite 41 wins in 62 matches, Yanguas and Nieto did not win a Premier Padel title in 2025. They frequently reached the late rounds, including semifinals in Doha, Madrid, Paris, Düsseldorf, Rotterdam and NewGiza, without turning that consistency into a trophy.

The challenge is not to reproduce the 2025 pair exactly. They need to improve their ability to close the biggest matches. A familiar partnership can shorten the adaptation period, but it also returns with a body of evidence opponents already know.

The 2026 season also shows two different individual trajectories. Yanguas has 26 wins and 14 defeats on Premier Padel and sits seventh in the Race. Nieto is 23-14 and 17th in the Race. Their reunion must therefore bring together two players whose current numbers are not at the same level.

Stupaczuk-Sanz: more novelty, more uncertainty

Stupaczuk and Sanz begin with fewer shared references, but their basic structure also requires no side change. FIP lists Stupaczuk on the left and Sanz on the right.

Stupaczuk brings the deepest Premier Padel record of the four. His FIP page lists five career titles and 183 wins in 246 matches. Sanz has two titles and 132 wins in 201 matches. The new team therefore combines two players who have already won at the highest level, even though neither has won a Premier Padel title in 2026.

Our tactical reading starts with those positions. Stupaczuk can take a large share of the finishing from the left. From the right, Sanz will have to choose when to accelerate without opening the middle too early. The main point to watch is less their ability to create winners than the way they organise rallies after a first attack comes back.

This is where the risk sits. A new pair has to establish common rules on middle balls, coverage after a smash, preferred lob height and who slows the exchange when the first move to the net creates no clear advantage. Those decisions are fast for an established pair. They require time for a new one.

The contrast in the 2026 numbers

Stupaczuk has the same Premier Padel record as Yanguas this season, 26 wins and 14 defeats, and also sits seventh in the Race. Sanz is 23-15 and 15th in the Race. On paper, Stupaczuk-Sanz therefore combines a player established in the upper part of the Race with a partner eight places lower.

The gap rules nothing out. It simply means that the new duo must create a level of coherence greater than the sum of its recent results if it wants to move ahead of Yanguas-Nieto and closer to the top three pairs.

Strengths and weaknesses: the comparison table

The players’ reactions add another layer

The two splits did not unfold in the same way. Stupaczuk announced the end of his partnership with Yanguas himself. In the Instagram message published on 6 August, the Argentine summed up the separation this way:

Our paths separate again… we are bringing our padel together to an end.

Coki Nieto’s reaction is more explicit about his relationship with partner changes. In his Instagram message on 10 August, the Madrid-born player wrote:

I have never liked changing partners, even less in the middle of the season, but I respect the decision and it has to be accepted.

That sentence matters when reading the reshuffle. Nieto does not present the split with Sanz as something he was seeking. His reunion with Yanguas therefore follows a decision made elsewhere, then a very quick sporting solution.

Jon Sanz, for his part, publicly acknowledged that their second spell had included periods when they performed as expected and others when they did not. That assessment matches the 2026 results: semifinals in Gijón and NewGiza, followed by a run dominated by quarterfinals and earlier exits.

The anecdote that prevents Coki-Sanz being reduced to a failure

Their 2026 split should not erase what they already achieved together. On 22 December 2024, Coki Nieto and Jon Sanz beat Arturo Coello and Agustín Tapia in the Premier Padel Finals final in Barcelona, 3-6, 7-5, 6-3. The world No. 1 pair entered on a 47-match winning streak and had held two match points at 5-4 in the second set.

Before that final, Coello-Tapia had won all eight previous meetings with Nieto-Sanz. Coki and Jon overturned the ninth and took their second title of the season after Bordeaux. FIP recorded this reaction from Nieto:

Not even in our dreams could we have imagined ending the season like this.

That sequence offers an important reminder for the current dossier. Partnerships are not judged only by average results. A pair can possess a very high peak level without reproducing it every week. For Sanz, the move to Stupaczuk will be about bringing that peak closer to his regular output.

Another anecdote: Yanguas and Nieto had announced the end before returning

In December 2025, Nieto publicly explained that he would have a new project in 2026 and would not play with Yanguas. Eight months later, the two Spaniards are back together. The reunion illustrates how quickly the top of men’s padel can be rearranged, where a split does not necessarily close a partnership for several seasons.

There is also a sporting detail. Their most recent Madrid appearance together ended in the 2025 semifinals. Their first appearance in this new spell comes at the same tournament. They will therefore have an immediate benchmark against the previous version of the pair.

Five questions Madrid can start to answer

Do Yanguas and Nieto return better than in 2025?

The reference exists: 41 wins, 21 defeats, no title. Progress will show if they keep their consistency while converting more quarterfinals and semifinals against the top three seeds. Madrid cannot deliver a verdict on several months, but it will provide the first measure of their new adjustments.

Is the No. 4 seed really worth 21 points?

Yes in terms of the draw, no as a measurement of quality. The 21 points do not show that one pair is clearly stronger. They can, though, separate the 3-4 seed group from the 5-8 group. The gain is structural before it is sporting.

Can Stupaczuk give Sanz a more stable base?

His experience and five Premier Padel titles provide a credible framework, but the answer has to come from the court. Watch who makes the decision on middle balls, how they defend after an incomplete attack and whether they accept extending the rally when the opening is not clear.

Can Sanz accelerate without unbalancing the pair?

This is one of the most interesting tactical points. From the right, Sanz can bring aggression without waiting for a perfect ball. That becomes a strength if Stupaczuk covers the vacated zone and the two players maintain coherent spacing at the net. It becomes a risk if those accelerations come without shared coverage.

Which duo benefits immediately from the change?

As of 10 August, the accounting advantage belongs to Yanguas-Nieto, who sit 21 points ahead. Their clearest sporting benefit is familiarity. Stupaczuk-Sanz carry more uncertainty, but they also have the opportunity to build a new operating model after two projects had begun to lose momentum. The comparison therefore has to measure two different things: how quickly the Spaniards restart and how quickly the new Argentine-Spanish pair can build.

The indicators to watch at Madrid P1

• The exact position of the two pairs at the time of the draw, because the regulations use the latest ranking update available at that moment.
• How many rounds Yanguas-Nieto need to recover their 2025 patterns.
• Middle-court management for Stupaczuk-Sanz, especially when both players can intervene on the same ball.
• Yanguas-Nieto’s ability to convert a quarterfinal or semifinal opportunity, the area that held them back in 2025.
• Stupaczuk-Sanz’s reaction after their first poor spell in a match, which will reveal how their communication works under pressure.

Madrid P1 will not decide the autumn hierarchy on its own. It will provide a clean test. The main draw starts on 1 September, the quarterfinals are scheduled for the 4th, the semifinals for the 5th and the final for the 6th. For two pairs separated by 21 points, every round can already change how this reshuffle is read.