Icardo and Jensen return to semi-finals as Bordeaux P2 heats up

Tamara Icardo and Claudia Jensen powered back into a Premier Padel semi-final at Bordeaux P2, beating Claudia Fernandez and Sofia Araujo 6-4, 2-6, 6-2 to reach that stage for the first time since the P2 in Belgium in April. The No. 5 seeds handled the swings better than their opponents, taking the opening set, losing control in the second, then resetting fast enough to seize the decider and push themselves back into the title conversation after two months away from the last four.

Their reward was a meeting with Paula Josemaria and Bea Gonzalez, who advanced with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Noa Cànovas and Laia Rodríguez in 1 hour and 20 minutes. The upper half of the women’s draw mostly followed the seed sheet from there, with Delfi Brea and Gemma Triay holding off Marina Guinart and Veronica Virseda 6-0, 7-6, and Ari Sanchez and Andrea Ustero surviving a tighter finish to beat Ale Salazar and Ale Alonso 6-2, 7-6. In a tournament built around the return of the best pairs to the spotlight, the women’s side kept producing the kind of heavy-hitting matchups that leave little room for drift.

Bordeaux itself added to the sense of compression. The third edition of the Betclic Bordeaux Premier Padel P2 was staged indoors at Patinoire de Mériadeck, with three competition courts, a men’s main draw of 28 pairs, a women’s draw of 24 pairs and total prize money set at €264,534. The structure of the event, with the women entering directly in the round of 16 and the top four men’s seeds joining on Thursday, packed marquee names into the business end of the week and left the quarter-finals looking more like a summit than a reset.

The men’s draw leaned back toward the established order. Paquito Navarro and Martin Di Nenno ended their quarter-final frustration since reuniting by knocking out Juan Lebron and Leo Augsburger 6-3, 7-5, then set up a semi-final with Arturo Coello and Agustin Tapia, who survived a tougher route before beating Momo Gonzalez and Lucas Campagnolo 7-5, 3-6, 6-1. Fede Chingotto and Ale Galan controlled Coki Nieto and Jon Sanz 6-1, 6-3, while Franco Stupaczuk and Mike Yanguas got past Juan Tello and Maxi Arce 7-5, 6-4. After Alix Collombon and Ksenia Sharifova had kept French hopes alive early in the event by surviving three match points against Jana Montes and Lucía Sainz, Bordeaux ended the quarter-final round with its hierarchy largely restored and the biggest names still standing for the weekend.