Philippines defend Asia Pacific Padel Cup title with 3-0 final win

Padel Pilipinas protected home court in Manila and kept the Asia Pacific Padel Cup title in Philippine hands with a 3-0 final win over Pakistan at Play Padel McKinley in Bonifacio Global City, Taguig. The sweep gave the hosts back-to-back regional crowns and underlined how complete their squad was across the professional draw.

The third edition of the Asia Pacific Padel Cup ran from June 25 to 28, 2026, with 10 teams from seven nations competing across professional and amateur brackets. APPT said the venue, Play Padel McKinley, is the biggest padel club in Metro Manila and features five covered open-air courts, a fitting stage for a home side that had already won 17 of its 20 individual games in group play.

The final followed the same script. LA Canizares and Jason Tamayo Lapidus opened with a win over Abdullah Adnan and Muhammad Salar, Joanna Tao Yee Tan and Marian Capadocia then beat Aqsa Khalid and Meheq Khokhar to push the Philippines within one point of the title, and Capadocia returned alongside Lapidus to finish the sweep against Muhammad Salar and Sheeza Sajid. Pakistan finished runners-up, India took bronze over Thailand, and Padel Society Korea placed fifth.

The result strengthened a short but quickly forming championship line. Indonesia won the inaugural APPC in Bali in 2024, Padel Pilipinas took the title in Kuala Lumpur in 2025, and the Manila defense confirmed the Philippines as the region’s most established program in team padel. A 3-0 final matters in this format because points are pooled across men’s, women’s and mixed matches, so the margin reflected depth as much as top-end quality.

Still, the broader takeaway from Manila was not only the champion staying put. Taiwan’s göpadel won the amateur title in its APPC debut, beating Pakistan 2-1 in a final decided by a third-set tiebreak. APPT said Taiwan had opened its first padel court only five months before the event and went through the amateur draw unbeaten, a striking jump for a nation that arrived with minimal infrastructure and left with a title.

Taiwan captain Eric Lee set the tone at the opening press conference when he said, “We are paddle babies here.” By the end of the week, that line had turned into a warning for the rest of Asia-Pacific: the gap behind the established powers is already closing.