The Qatar Airways Premier Padel Tour heads to the Middle East, with Kuwait set to host its first major event of this decisive final stretch of the season. The venue for last year’s FIP World Cup Pairs, where Ale Galán - Fede Chingotto and Paula Josemaría - Ari Sánchez lifted the titles, will stage the third Major of the year from Sunday 25 October to Saturday 31 October.

It will be the first tournament of this category to be played indoors, with The Arena Kuwait and the Rafa Nadal Academy serving as its impressive venues. The event will award 2,000 points to each champion and a total prize pool of €1,044,849. It will also serve as a prelude to the FIP World Cup in Qatar and the Dubai P1, which will take place over the following two weeks.

The No. 1 Spot in the FIP Race Is at Stake

On the women’s draw Ari Sánchez and Andrea Ustero have emerged as serious contenders to finish the year at the top of the FIP Race after winning three of the last four Tour events: the Paris Major, Rotterdam P2 and Milano P1.

The Spanish team have raised their level and established themselves at No. 2 in the FIP Race after winning the title in Italy, defeating Gemma Triay - Delfi Brea 6-1, 6-4 in the semi-finals and Bea González - Paula Josemaría 7-6, 6-3 in the final.

Sánchez - Ustero have an impressive record in Majors this season, having finished runners-up at the Foro Italico before winning Roland Garros. They are 1,980 points behind the world No. 1s with 6,500 points still up for grabs, meaning another strong run at the Kuwait Major Premier Padel Powered by BNK could make the battle for No. 1 even more fiercely contested.

Meanwhile, Triay - Brea will look to remain at the top for a second consecutive season. They haven't lifted a title since the Madrid P1, but have reached four consecutive semi-finals and have not been eliminated before that stage since the 2025 Málaga P1. Since joining forces, they have also won four of the six Majors they have contested, and they will be looking to demonstrate that same dominance in Kuwait.

Perlamita are also firmly in the battle. Although Bea González - Paula Josemaría have not lifted a title since June’s Valladolid P2, they are level with Triay - Brea as the pair with the most titles this season (six), and a victory in Kuwait could be the starting point for a major comeback.

On the men’s draw, Agustín Tapia - Arturo Coello find themselves in a much more comfortable position. Their incredible dominance at Roland Garros and throughout the European swing has seen them win the last four tournaments, opening up a 2,980-point lead over Chingalán.

They have their destiny in their own hands as they bid to complete what would be their fourth consecutive season as world No. 1s. If they reach the final at each of the last four events of the year — the Kuwait Major, Dubai P1, Mexico Major and Barcelona Finals — not even a clean sweep of titles by their closest rivals would be enough to dislodge them from the top.

The Road to the Finals Runs Through Kuwait

This Major will also be crucial in the battle to qualify for the Finals, which will bring together the top 16 players in the FIP Race from 10 to 13 December at Barcelona’s Palau Sant Jordi. The ranking takes into account each player’s 22 best results throughout the season across Premier Padel and the CUPRA FIP Tour.

In the men’s draw, six players have already secured their places at the event: Tapia, Coello, Chingotto, Galán, Juan Lebrón and Leo Augsburger. The remaining 10 spots are still up for grabs, although Franco Stupaczuk, Mike Yanguas, Jon Sanz, Paquito Navarro, Martín Di Nenno and Francisco Guerrero are all close to securing their tickets.

If the Finals started today, the final four qualifying spots would go to Momo González (13th, 3,079 points), Lucas Campagnolo (14th, 3,047), Coki Nieto (15th, 2,964) and Javi Leal (16th, 2,943). Nieto is in the strongest position of the four, having played in only 19 tournaments so far, while González, Campagnolo and Leal have already competed in 23.

As a result, all the points González earns in the remaining three tournaments before the Finals will be added directly to his tally. If he suffers an early elimination, he could also make up ground by competing in FIP Gold or FIP Platinum events, which award 150 and 300 points respectively to the champions.

There are also four players still in contention for a place: Juan Tello (17th, 2,352 points), Edu Alonso (18th, 2,299), Maxi Arce (19th, 2,192) and Jairo Bautista (20th, 2,167). All four have already reached or exceeded the 22-tournament limit this season, meaning they will need to produce strong results during the final stretch of the year to have a chance of making it to Barcelona.

On the women’s draw, eight spots remain to be decided after the players from the four leading teams secured their qualification: Triay, Brea, González, Josemaría, Sánchez, Ustero, Claudia Fernández and Martina Calvo.

Sofia Araújo (9th, 4,605 points), Martita Ortega (10th, 3,960), Claudia Jensen (11th, 3,615) and Tamara Icardo (12th, 3,435) are close to securing their places. If the Finals started today, the final four qualifiers would be Marina Guinart (13th, 3,210), Alejandra Salazar (14th, 2,930), Alejandra Alonso (15th, 2,885) and Verónica Virseda (16th, 2,585).

They will need to produce strong performances, starting in Kuwait, to earn their places at the Palau Sant Jordi. Five other players find themselves in the fight for qualification with very similar points: Aranza Osoro, Salazar’s current partner (17th, 2,520 points), Giulia Dal Pozzo (18th, 2,390) and her partner Nuria Rodríguez (19th, 2,354), Bea Caldera (20th, 2,345) and her partner Carmen Goenaga (21st, 2,255), as well as Raquel Eugenio (22nd, 2,250).

Osoro arrives at the Kuwait Major in the best form after reaching four consecutive Tour quarter-finals. Goenaga, meanwhile, is the only player yet to reach or exceed the quota of ranking tournaments, having competed in just 21. This means she could enter CUPRA FIP Tour events in the coming weeks with the advantage of knowing exactly which results would count towards her Finals qualification.

Kuwait WelcomeS Comebacks and New Teams

Nieto, who missed the last two events in Düsseldorf and Milan due to physical discomfort, will return to the court alongside Mike Yanguas to form the tournament’s sixth-seeded team. The pair finished runners-up at the Madrid P1 in early September and will now look to close the gap on fourth seeds Franco Stupaczuk - Jon Sanz during the final stretch of the season.

Goenaga, meanwhile, retired during the quarter-finals of the Rotterdam P2 due to a hip problem that also ruled her out in Germany and Italy. She returns to Kuwait fully recovered to team up with Caldera, with the Finals firmly in their sights. Before the Tour’s European swing, they lifted the FIP Platinum Lyon title, but they have yet to progress beyond the quarter-finals at a Premier Padel event this season.

Kuwait will also feature numerous new teams in the men’s draw. The highest-ranked of them will be Tolito Aguirre - Pablo Lijó (#19). Tolito, who reached the semi-finals of the Cancún P2 earlier this year, will return to the drive side to team up with Lijó, who came close to eliminating Tapia - Coello on several occasions earlier in the season alongside Arce. Aguirre’s former partner, Pablo García, will join forces with Madrid P1 quarter-finalist Alonso Rodríguez to form the tournament’s No. 22 team.

Other new alliances include Andrés Fernández - José Diestro (#28), Víctor Ruiz - Facundo López (#29), Marc Sintes - Juan Zamora (#30), Antonio Fernández - Álvaro Cepero (#31), Flavio Abbate - Franco Dal Bianco (#34) and Mario Del Castillo - Ignacio Vilariño (#37).

In the women’s draw, the main new team will be Noa Canovas - Marina Lobo (#18). Canovas competed alongside Claudia Jensen in Düsseldorf and Caldera in Milan, reaching the quarter-finals and round of 16 respectively after entering both tournaments as an individual Lucky Loser. She now begins a new project alongside Valencia-born Lobo, who has reached the round of 16 four times on Tour this year.

Other notable new teams include Lea Godallier - Lucía Peralta (#28), as well as Victoria Kurz, Germany’s No. 1 player, who will team up with Portugal’s Ana Catarina Nogueira to form the No. 30 team in the draw. Meanwhile, Aimee Gibson, Great Britain’s highest-ranked player in the FIP Ranking (#91), will make her first appearance in the main draw of a Major alongside Carla Fernandez (#67), having benefited from an individual Lucky Loser spot.

For the third consecutive season, Kuwait will be the world capital of padel. The country made its debut on the Tour in 2024 with a P1 event, hosted the FIP World Cup Pairs last season and will now stage a Major.

The event will also serve as a prelude to the FIP World Cup in Doha and the Dubai P1, bringing a three-week ‘swing’ through the Middle East to a close before the final stretch of the season, featuring the Mexico Major from 22 to 30 November and the Finals from 10 to 13 December.