Thrilling semifinals set up men’s and women’s finals in New York

The Pro Padel League’s semifinal day in New York turned Hammerstein Ballroom into a true championship stage, narrowing the City’s Cup Finals to the men’s and women’s title matches after a weekend that had already produced a sold-out opening day. By the end of the league’s third day at the Manhattan venue, the bracket had done what marquee events are supposed to do: raise the stakes, keep the building full and make every point feel like it belonged to a title fight.

That matters because the PPL is not selling New York as a one-off showcase. The league describes itself as North America’s first professional padel league, and its 2025 season included 10 teams across the United States, Canada and Mexico, plus a footprint that reached San Sebastián, Spain. New York was the center of the season-ending push from October 16-19 at Hammerstein Ballroom, and the league has already set another New York event for July 9-12, 2026, a sign it wants the city to become a repeat destination rather than a single splashy stop.

The semifinal round carried the tournament’s clearest competitive logic. It was the last step before the championships, so Saturday’s winners earned Sunday’s pressure-cooker final while the losers were left one match short. The crowd response matched the setting, with fans packing the venue again inside a ballroom that gave the sport a tighter, louder feel than a standard club, and with the city-center setting helping the event feel more like a live sports spectacle than a regular stop on a padel circuit.

That energy carried into the final day, when Miami Padel Club won the men’s title and New York Atlantics won the women’s title. In the women’s draw, the closing-night spotlight also fell on Gemma Triay, Ariadna Cañellas, Marta Ortega and Sofia Araujo, names that gave the event real star power and helped the league push a broader point: padel can command attention in the U.S. when it is staged like a major event, not just a match card.

The New York stop gave the league exactly what it wanted from semifinal Saturday, a packed house, championship stakes and a title weekend that felt worthy of Manhattan.