Controversy in the men's final
The men's final pitted the world's number one and number two pairs, Alejandro Galán and Juan Lebrón, against Agustín Tapia and Arturo Coello in the same final as the 2023 Abu Dhabi Master. The match was very intense with the Spanish-Argentine duo winning the first set 6–4 and, after securing a break in the second, went up 5–3 and had a chance to serve for the match.
At 30–30, Coello responded to Lebrón's return from the side wall with a quick smash down the middle, which went in just wide, but it was clear from the live broadcast that the shot was good; no one disputed it. Therefore, two match points. Tapia won the next point with a powerful three-point smash that Galán couldn't reach, so the match ended 6–4, 6–3. But while Tapia and Coello were celebrating and Lebrón waited at the net to shake their hands, Galán arrived looking puzzled, saying that it was now 40–40 and that they would play the golden point.
The referee, Honorio García, announced over the PA system, "Game, set, and match," but Galán persisted, insisting, "You called it 30-40 earlier." Incredulous, the players went to ask the referee for an explanation. He replied that he had made a mistake on the penultimate point; it turned out that after Coello's smash, he had called "30–40" (point for Lebrón-Galán), but only the Madrid native heard it. He said nothing, as did the other three players, who continued playing, assuming the ball was in.
Finally, the umpire ruled that play should continue at 5–3 and 40–40. The crowd erupted, and Coello, having already celebrated the victory and shaken hands with his opponents, couldn't believe it: "I can't go back onto the court." However, the decision had been made: "Play on." The golden point was put into play; it was still match point for the number 2 seeds, but they lost it, and later they also lost the second set in a tie-break. The crowd showed their complete disagreement with what had happened; from the moment of the controversy, they booed loudly on several occasions and celebrated every point won by Tapia and Coello. They were able to get back into the game and ended up winning the third set 7–5. It was one of the biggest padel controversies of recent times.
This incident had a major impact. The social media accounts of both the World Padel Tour, Galán and Lebrón were flooded with comments criticizing their behavior, arguing that they knew they had lost the match, and that in the golden point following the incident they should have deliberately missed the return, thus giving the victory to Arturo Coello and Agustín Tapia.
Withdrawals
In the men's draw, the situation was slightly better than at the La Rioja Open. A total of 6 pairs who had registered and were going to compete in the main draw encountered setbacks that complicated their participation. Pairs 2, 19, 25, 26 and pair A were unable to play due to injuries, so the main draw had to be modified. However, Alex Arroyo's injury did not prevent his partner, Miguel Yanguas, from competing in the tournament, as he ultimately played with Leandro Augsburger by taking advantage of the "lucky loser" rule, since he had been eliminated in the preliminary rounds.
In the women's draw, however, a very unusual situation occurred; the 8th and 13th ranked pairs, made up of Tamara Icardo and Virginia Riera and Carolina Navarro and Mª Carmen Villalba, missed the deadline to register for the tournament (in the case of the Malaga pair, by 10 minutes), so they could not participate.
Santiago de Chile, Chile
Agustín Tapia
Arturo Coello
