Galan and Chingotto pull out of Dubai P1: a hand injury, a third miss and a gift for Leal and Guerrero

Galan and Chingotto are out of Dubai P1 with a hand injury, their third miss in a row. Who gets the spot, the seeds and when Galan could return.

The Middle East swing ends the way it began for Galan and Chingotto: without them. The pair will not play the Dubai P1, and they are already off the entry list. Galan is still recovering from a right hand injury, and it is the third straight tournament he misses in the region.

The hand had already forced him out of the Kuwait Major. He then did not make it back in time for the World Cup in Doha, where Javi Leal took his place in Spain's team.

Chingotto chooses to sit out too

Chingotto could have played Dubai with another partner from the waiting list. He decided not to. The Argentine stays with Galan, and the pair simply leave the draw.

No return date has been confirmed. According to Padel Magazine, Galan's priority is to recover fully before the big events that close the season, and the two hope to play both the Mexico Major (23 to 29 November) and the Barcelona Finals (10 to 13 December). Whether they do depends on how the hand responds.

The number one race is closed

The absence has a cost in the ranking. Galan and Chingotto no longer have any chance of finishing the year as the world's best pair. Coello and Tapia secured a fourth consecutive year at the top when they won in Kuwait.

With the rivals out, Coello and Tapia are the top seeds in Dubai. Lebron and Augsburger are second, Stupaczuk and Sanz third, and Di Nenno and Paquito Navarro fourth.

Leal and Guerrero get a gift

The vacancy has a clear beneficiary. Leal and Fran Guerrero did not register on time and had been given a wildcard into qualifying. Under the tour rules, a place that opens in the main draw goes to the best-ranked pair from qualifying, and that was them. They skip the qualifying rounds and enter the main draw directly as seeds number 6, with 13,569 points.

The timing matters for the race to Barcelona. Guerrero is 12th and Leal 18th, just under the cut of 16 places. Not having to play qualifying gives them a real chance to collect points.

The story is still developing: the next update to watch is whether Galan's hand allows him to return in Mexico.