114 teams, seven categories and three days of competition — but one match in Singapore offered a particularly timely look at where padel in Asia is heading.
The APPT Love All Grand Slam Platinum brought the tour to Singapore from 11–13 September, with players competing at Love All at Grace Orchard School and a US$20,000 professional prize pool on the line.
Across seven courts, 114 teams competed through the weekend, with established APPT names joined by players making their first appearances on the tour.
And with padel preparing to make its debut as a medal sport at the Aichi-Nagoya 2026 Asian Games, Singapore provided a glimpse of the regional rivalries that are beginning to take shape. Padel’s Asian Games competition is scheduled for later this month.
Philippines vs Malaysia: a preview of what is to come
Perhaps the most significant match from an Asian perspective came in the Pro Men’s consolation final.
Philippines representatives Argil Lance Cañizares and Jason Tamayo Lapidus faced Malaysia’s Aidan Yunus and Christian Didier Chin, with the Filipino pairing taking the match 7–5, 6–3.
The significance went beyond the result.
Cañizares and Lapidus have been preparing with the Philippine national padel team for Aichi-Nagoya, while Yunus and Chin have been confirmed as Malaysia’s men’s representatives. Just days before Asia’s biggest multi-sport event, Singapore put the two pairs on opposite sides of the same padel court.
It was a small preview of something much bigger: Asian players increasingly meeting one another in competitive environments throughout the season before carrying their national colours onto the continental stage.
The upset of the weekend
Singapore also produced one of the biggest surprises of the tournament.
Fifth seeds Sergi Nogueras and Valentino Acosta, who entered the tournament with 11,220 APPT ranking points as a pairing, met Arturo Miguel Hernando Núñez and Tiago Vallejos in the first round of the Pro Men’s main draw.
Hernando Núñez and Vallejos had already been forced to earn their place through qualifying. They then went one step further, defeating the fifth seeds 7–6, 4–6, 6–3 in a three-set battle to reach the quarterfinals.
Their run eventually ended against Martín Andornino and Juan Carlos Gama González, but not before producing one of the weekend’s standout results.
Bernils and Marti take the Platinum crown
At the top of the men’s draw, Marc Bernils and Carlos Marti Vaño completed their Singapore campaign by defeating top seeds Eduard Altimires Ros and Adria Mercadal Berenguer 6–4, 6–2 in Sunday’s final.
The victory capped a weekend that combined established international talent with an increasingly competitive group of players emerging from across Asia.
Singapore in numbers
114 teams | 7 categories | 7 courts | US$20,000 Pro prize pool | 3 days of competition
But the numbers only tell part of the story.
Singapore showed what the APPT increasingly aims to provide: a competitive meeting point where professional players, emerging regional talent and the wider Asian padel community can compete on the same weekend.
And with padel about to step onto the Asian Games stage for the first time, the regional matchups seen in Singapore may soon carry even greater significance.
Next stop: Kuala Lumpur
The tour now moves to Malaysia for the APPT House of Padel Open Kuala Lumpur, 9–11 October 2026.
