Ayats earns a meeting with Coello and Tapia in Milan

Arnau Ayats and Emilio Sánchez Chamero came through two close sets on Monday in Milan. Their reward for beating Aris Patiniotis and Diego García García was a place opposite Arturo Coello and Agustín Tapia, a meeting with the world number ones that gives an already worthwhile tournament a rather different scale. Having come through qualifying, Ayats and Sánchez Chamero have earned their chance to see how far this week can take them.

The 7 to 5, 7 to 5 victory came in the opening round of the main draw, taking the pair into Wednesday’s second round. For followers in the UAE, Ayats offers a familiar connection to a tournament otherwise taking place well beyond the Gulf. He is listed under the UAE in Milan, as is Iñigo Jofre, who begins his own campaign alongside Juanlu Esbrí on Tuesday. Both have previously helped the national team earn a place among the leading sides at the world championships.

There was little spare room in Monday’s score. Each set reached five games apiece before Ayats and Sánchez Chamero took the two games needed to finish it, avoiding the extra uncertainty of a tie break on both occasions. A straight sets result can look comfortable once it is printed on a draw sheet, but these were narrow margins. Coming through them gives the qualifiers something tangible to bring into their next match, even with the considerable change in opposition.

Coello and Tapia arrive in Italy having won in Paris, Rotterdam and Düsseldorf in succession. Their latest title was their eleventh of the season, secured against Franco Stupaczuk and Jon Sanz in a second consecutive final between the pairs. It leaves Ayats and Sánchez Chamero preparing for opponents whose recent success has survived changes of city and tournament, with another trophy still close enough to be a fresh memory.

The Düsseldorf final also offered a reminder of how difficult it can be to turn a promising position into a set against them. Stupaczuk and Sanz recovered an early break, only for Coello and Tapia to take four consecutive games from 2 to 2 and win the opening set. In the second, they broke back when their opponents were a game away from forcing a decider, then completed a 6 to 2, 7 to 6 victory. For Wednesday’s challengers, any opening will need to be followed by more good points before it becomes a lasting advantage.

Jofre and Esbrí have a different starting point in Milan. Seeded twelfth, they received a bye through the first round and will meet José Antonio Diestro and Marc Sintes Villalonga on Tuesday. Diestro and Sintes have already beaten Enrique Goenaga and Guillermo Collado Losada 6 to 4, 6 to 3, so the seeded pair will be facing opponents with a completed match behind them. A place in the last sixteen is available, with Jofre and Esbrí trying to make their first appearance of the week count immediately.

Their match is listed on Court 2 at GetFIT, following the opening women’s fixture on that court. Play there begins at 9.30am in Milan, which is 11.30am in the UAE, but Jofre and Esbrí have no fixed starting time because their match follows the one before it. That makes Tuesday the first appointment for local supporters before attention turns to Ayats on Wednesday. The two players are competing with different partners here, each carrying his own route through the draw.

Their shared history with the UAE gives those separate matches a little more resonance. At the 2024 world championships, Jofre partnered Sergio Icardo and Ayats played alongside Francisco Jurado as the team beat Brazil to finish fifth. Their fifth place came after another win over Chile in the preceding placement tie, with the same two partnerships supplying the victories. It meant the team finished its tournament with successive wins and a result to build on. The names now appearing separately in Milan were part of that collective result.

That earlier performance also provides a useful way to follow the coming weeks. The FIP World Cup returns to Doha from November 2 to 7, bringing sixteen men’s national teams and sixteen women’s national teams to the Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex. Tour partnerships give way to national selections in that setting, with the task of winning a tie shared across a squad. Milan offers a chance to watch individual players in regular competition before the attention of the sport turns towards that team event.

Around Doha, the Gulf calendar is becoming busy. The Kuwait Major concludes on October 31, before the World Cup in Doha and Dubai’s P1 tournament, which runs from November 8 to 15. For readers who plan to follow the sport closer to home, the results in Italy will help give those tournaments some continuity. Coello and Tapia are trying to extend a run of titles, while players further down the draw are looking for the win that keeps them involved when the leading seeds arrive.

Milan continues through Sunday, leaving plenty to settle before a champion emerges. Ayats and Sánchez Chamero have already done enough to give their week a clear next step, and Jofre and Esbrí now have the opportunity to join them in making progress. Wednesday will ask much more of the qualifiers than Monday did. They can approach it with a win secured at the end of two close sets, and the knowledge that the match against the world’s leading pair is one they earned on court.