González and Meléndez lead FIP Silver Chieti after Giulianova win

José Luis González and Álvaro Meléndez reached Chieti as the pair everyone is chasing after a week that ended with a title in Giulianova and a jump to No. 1 seed status. Their run through the CUPRA FIP Tour now carries more weight than a hot streak: González is one win away from his 17th career title on the circuit, which would extend his all-time record, while Meléndez is bidding for a third title of the season.

That pressure comes with a clear warning from the draw. González and Meléndez are not easing into another routine weekend, because Robert Belmont and Guillem Figuerola sit in the top half with them, and the bottom half is stacked with Marcos Gonzalez Blanco and Martin Abud, the recent FIP Silver Narbonne champions, plus Diego Dorta and Pablo Sanchez, who have already taken FIP Bronze titles in Singapore, Bratislava and Nairobi this season. Chieti, in other words, has the feel of a compact field where recent winners do not get long to settle in.

The Spanish pair’s Giulianova title was built the hard way. In the FIP Silver Giulianova final, played June 29 after the event ran from June 24 to June 28 in Giulianova, Italy, González and Meléndez dropped the opening set 2-6 to Aris Patiniotis and Miguel Benítez before turning the match around with a 6-1, 6-0 response. That comeback is the reason they enter Chieti with momentum and with a target on their backs.

The women’s draw carries its own recent-form edge. Lorena Vano and Xenia Clasca Vidiella lead the field as the top-seeded pair, fresh from their run as the recent Narbonne champions, while No. 2 seeds Ana Varo and Caterina Baldi have their own reasons to push deep into the weekend. Baldi already won in Italy this season at the FIP Bronze Montesilvano event, while Varo is still chasing her first title of the year. Camille Sireix and Tess De Vocht, along with Natalia Molinilla and Bo Luttikhuis, add more depth to a draw that is already tight at the top.

The main draw starts Friday, July 3 and runs through Sunday, July 5, at Zero4 Padel Club in Chieti, with Hotel Corallo in Francavilla al Mare listed as the official hotel, about 6 kilometers from the venue. Prize money is set at EUR 10,000, and the indoor conditions should reward the players who can adapt quickest. Italy’s place on the tour keeps growing, too: a 2024 FIP feature said the country had become the world’s second for padel clubs and courts after Spain, and Chieti fits that trend, with a field strong enough to test whether Giulianova was a breakthrough or the start of something larger.