Salazar still has a Finals place to earn in her farewell season

Alejandra Salazar's return to Lyon ended in a deciding set tiebreak on Friday. She and Aranzazu Osoro had won the opening set of their quarter final against Alix Collombon and Ksenia Sharifova, but the home player and her partner recovered to win three games to six, seven to five, seven to six. Salazar had arrived as the defending champion. She left with another opportunity to collect a title and valuable points gone.

The result came during a part of her farewell season in which qualification for the Premier Padel Finals remains very much in play. In the tour's September 25 Race review, Salazar was 15th with 2,624 points. Osoro was 17th on 2,157, just outside the qualifying places, with Verónica Virseda occupying 16th on 2,265. The 108 points separating Osoro from Virseda made the difference between being inside and outside the field in that published snapshot.

The Finals take the leading 16 individual players in the Race, who form eight pairs. The women's rulebook also requires players to have competed in at least 15 Premier Padel tournaments during the season. Those rules give Salazar and Osoro a shared interest in improving their results, while leaving each responsible for her own qualification. Salazar holding a place in the top 16 would not, by itself, bring her current partner into the draw.

The same wins can help them towards different immediate goals. Salazar needs to preserve her position, while Osoro has ground to make up. A successful week must also be measured against the results of the players around them, whose progress will help determine the eventual qualification line.

The Race counts the best 22 results earned during 2026 across Premier Padel and the CUPRA FIP Tour. Once a player has more than 22 results, another tournament improves the total only if it replaces a lower score. That makes the quality of an autumn run important. Adding events to the calendar is useful when those appearances produce results strong enough to improve the tally, and there are progressively fewer weeks left in which to do it.

Lyon offered a particularly worthwhile opportunity, with 300 points for the FIP Platinum champions. Salazar had won the tournament alongside Martina Calvo in 2025, her most recent title, and returned this year with Osoro. Losing in the quarter finals denied them the chance to contest the rounds with the largest rewards. Their opponents' recovery also showed how quickly a promising start can turn into a missed chance during this part of the season.

Salazar has been clear for months about when her career will end. At the Italy Major in June, she said: “The decision to retire at the end of 2026 was a considered one, and I approached it calmly.” She was speaking while still preparing for another tournament, and her comments about giving her best on court sat alongside that decision. Retirement had a date in her plans, while the matches in front of her continued to require their own attention.

Madrid brought the farewell much closer to home. Her last professional match in the city was a quarter final defeat alongside Osoro against Gemma Triay and Delfina Brea, who won six games to three in each set. Triay had been Salazar's partner when they finished as world number ones in 2022. Facing her in that final home appearance connected an earlier period of Salazar's career with the competition she is still trying to win today.

In Paris, she and Osoro reached another quarter final and took Ari Sánchez and Andrea Ustero to three sets before losing. Sánchez and Ustero won six games to three, three to six, six to two. For Salazar and Osoro, reaching that stage again supplied a useful continuation of their Madrid result, even though the semi final remained out of reach. Their September has involved meaningful matches against leading pairs, with Lyon adding another close defeat to assess.

There is still time for the qualification picture to change before December. The remaining Premier Padel schedule includes the Rotterdam and Germany P2 events, Milan and Dubai at P1 level, and Majors in Kuwait and Mexico. Dubai's November place in that sequence gives Gulf followers a reason to watch how the standings develop through October. Salazar's participation there will depend on the entry list, but the event belongs to a period when the remaining qualification places may still be contested.

The farewell in Madrid has already given Salazar a chance to be recognised at home. What remains on court has its own value. A place in Barcelona would extend her final season into a competition she still has to reach through her results, and Osoro has her own place to pursue alongside her. After Lyon, the practical aim is to turn the next promising run into more time in a tournament and more points towards that December finish.