Sweden shine, Italy thrill on breakthrough day at Euro Padel Cup

Sweden and Italy turned Day 2 of the FIP Junior Euro Padel Cup in Porto into something bigger than two more group-stage results. Sweden’s girls beat France 2-1 in Group B, while Italy’s boys outlasted Belgium in a tense comeback that ended 4-6, 6-3, 7-6, a pair of wins that showed both federations are pushing past the old European script.

Sweden’s breakthrough had a clean shape to it. Tilde Malmina Stromgren and Maja Linge opened with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Le Roux and Laforge, France answered through Zia Debroy and Augustine Charpentier, who beat Teikari and Killman 7-5, 6-4, and then Silje Kjaergaard and Zoe Andersson finished the job by beating Isaac and Chretien Meal 6-3, 6-1. That result mattered because Sweden had already come through qualification with momentum and had nearly sprung a result on opening day, when Italy beat them 2-1.

The shape of Sweden’s rise is not hard to trace. FIP’s own background on the country described a padel base built on about 600,000 amateur players, 5,300 licensed players and 800 young players, and the same pipeline has been producing junior results on the FIP Promises circuit. In Malmö in May, Elma Misanovic and Juni Sjoland won the girls’ Under 18 title, and both players were back in Porto on straight-sets duty for Sweden in the final 8. That is the kind of overlap that turns a one-off upset into a real development story.

Italy’s boys did not have the same comfort. After losing the opening tie, they dragged Belgium into a knife fight, got level through Sarti and Rufo, then leaned on Stefano Indomenico and Pietro Giovannini to flip a match that had already seen them lose the first set before closing it in a tie-break. Italy also had the numbers behind the moment: the country has become Europe’s second-biggest padel market by facilities and courts, with 9,300 courts across 3,495 facilities, and FIP says 25 tournaments are scheduled in Italy in 2026 as part of a global junior circuit that drew 4,750 boys and girls in the first half of the year alone.

That is why Porto feels less like a novelty and more like a power map update. Spain still set the standard, with the defending champions rolling through their group ties, but Sweden in the girls’ draw and Italy in the boys’ event showed that the next tier is getting louder, deeper and harder to dismiss. Day 3 would decide the semifinal picture, but Day 2 already changed the conversation about who can matter over the next five years.