Aragon and Roglan knock out Paquito and Di Nenno from 0-6 down: Dubai P1 is wide open

Aragon and Roglan beat Paquito and Di Nenno 0-6, 6-4, 6-2 in the Dubai P1. The upset, the open draw and the round of 16 times and where to watch.

Paquito Navarro and Martin Di Nenno won the first set 6-0, and at that moment the Dubai P1 looked like it was going to the script. It did not. Manuel Aragon and Albert Roglan, a pair who had to come through qualifying just to reach the main draw, won the next two sets 6-4 and 6-2 and knocked out the fourth seeds in the round of 32. It is the biggest result so far in a tournament that lost its two best pairs before a ball was hit. With the Dubai P1 draw already stripped of its favorites, the upset turns Thursday's round of 16 into a genuinely open day.

From 0-6 to the round of 16

The numbers explain why nobody saw it coming. On the Padelpedia ranking, Paquito is No. 7 and Di Nenno No. 11, while Roglan sits around 90 and Aragon around 98. The seeds took the first set without any trouble and then lost their grip on the match. Aragon and Roglan now face Flavio Abbate and Franco Dal Bianco in the round of 16, a draw that gives the qualifiers a real chance to keep going. Prize money and points grow quickly from here: the champions of the Dubai P1 earn 1,000 ranking points and the men's winners take home 26,270 euros per player.

An open draw after the withdrawals

Coello and Tapia, the top seeds, withdrew on medical advice. Galan and Chingotto had already pulled out because of Galan's injured hand. That leaves the second seeds, Lebron and Augsburger, as the highest-ranked pair still standing.

The favorites

Lebron and Augsburger needed three sets against Manu Castano and Pol Hernandez (4-6, 6-3 and 6-3) and meet Victor Ruiz and Facundo Lopez next. Stupaczuk and Sanz, the third seeds, advanced when their opponents retired at 6-3 and 5-1, and they face Sanyo Gutierrez and Maxi Sanchez Blasco.

The dangerous ones

Coki Nieto and Mike Yanguas came back from a lost first set to win 6-7, 6-3 and 6-4, and play Javi Garrido and Juan De Pascual. Javi Leal and Fran Guerrero, who beat Felipe Calleja and Jaume Romera 6-3 and 6-4, take on Jairo Bautista and Lucas Bergamini. Tino Libaak and Gonza Alfonso won 6-3 and 6-4 and meet the lucky losers Marcos Gonzalez and Diego Garcia, who took the spot the withdrawals opened.

The round of 16: who plays whom and where to watch

The men's round of 16 is on Thursday 12 November at the Hamdan Sports Complex. The first match on each court starts at 09:00 in Spain, and Coki and Yanguas against De Pascual and Garrido is not scheduled before 16:00. The other men's matches include Inigo Jofre and Juanlu Esbri against Momo Gonzalez and Campagnolo, and Juan Tello and Maxi Arce against Edu Alonso and Aimar Goni. In Spain the round is on the official Premier Padel YouTube channel for free, the last round that will be. From the quarterfinals, Movistar Plus+ in Spain and Andorra and Red Bull TV in most of the world take over.

What a qualifier run would mean

With the two best pairs gone, the title is available to a wider group than the draw suggested a week ago. Lebron and Augsburger are the favorites on paper, but a qualifying pair has already shown that a lost first set means little in Dubai. Aragon and Roglan have done the hard part. Now they have to show it was not a one-night story.