October 27, 2026
Castaño tops the charts, Bidahorria stuns Salazar, and the Round of 32 delivers chaos across both draws
The Kuwait Major got serious fast. The Round of 32 handed out bagels, three-set thrillers, and more than a few nasty surprises — and when the dust settled, it was Manuel Castaño who led every single player in fantasy points with a scorching 40.2 FP performance alongside Pol Hernandez in a crisp 6-3 6-3 demolition. On the women's side, Julieta Evangelina Bidahorria pulled off the upset of the round, knocking out former top player Alejandra Salazar Bengoechea in three sets and banking 38.6 FP in the process. Fantasy managers who had the nerve to back the underdogs are sleeping very well tonight.
Let's start at the top of the men's draw, where Arturo Coello and Agustin Tapia did exactly what you'd expect from the world's best pair — they absolutely flattened Flavio Abbate and Franco Dal Bianco 6-3 6-0, dropping just three games across the match. Both collected 18.6 FP each, which sounds tidy until you remember their ranking multipliers are well below 1.0 because the algorithm expects them to win like this. That's the trade-off with elite picks: consistent points, but never the ceiling-busters. Elsewhere, Martin Di Nenno and Francisco Navarro rolled through Alvaro Montiel Caruso and Daniel Santigosa 6-2 6-3, with Di Nenno (19.9 FP) and Navarro (18.6 FP) looking smooth. Juan Lebron and Leo Augsburger dispatched Juan Cruz Belluati and Martin Abud 6-4 6-3 without drama — Lebron's 12.7 FP won't set the world on fire this round, but he's averaging 89.1 FP on the season and at 0.65 FP per credit he's arguably the best value among the big names still standing.
The match of the men's draw? That'd be Solano Marmolejo and Ramiro Pereyra losing a 3-6 6-3 4-6 battle to Jorge Nieto and Miguel Yanguas. Yanguas grabbed 9.1 FP from that three-set win, which feels modest — until you consider he's #10 ranked and had to grind hard for it. Meanwhile, Pol Hernandez and Manuel Castaño's clinical 6-3 6-3 win over Jimenez and Arroyo was the fantasy story of the men's round. Castaño's 40.2 FP and Hernandez's 33.1 FP made this the richest pairing of the day by miles — more on exactly how that number was built in a moment. Also worth flagging: Jofre and Esbri knocked out Rubini and Chozas 7-5 7-5 without dropping a set, with Jofre (20 FP) and Esbri (19.4 FP) both rewarded handsomely. And Gonzalo Alfonso and Tino Libaak were ruthless — a 6-2 6-0 bagel of Moragues Moltò and Fonteny sent Libaak to 30.3 FP and Alfonso to 26.9 FP. That's a serious return from a pair that aren't among the most expensive options in the game.
| # | Player | FP |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Manuel Castaño | 40.2 |
| 2 | Guillermo Collado | 35.7 |
| 3 | Pol Hernandez | 33.1 |
| 4 | Enrique Goenaga | 30.9 |
| 5 | Tino Libaak | 30.3 |
The women's draw delivered drama in spades. The biggest result? Julieta Evangelina Bidahorria and Virginia Riera defeating Alejandra Salazar Bengoechea and Aranzazu Osoro Ulrich 2-6 6-2 6-1 in three sets. Salazar is a legend of this sport and she and Osoro were listed as heavy favourites — but Bidahorria and Riera dismantled them in the final two sets and ran away with 38.6 FP and 37.4 FP respectively. That scoreline told the story: dropped the first set, then absolutely took over. The difficulty coefficient did most of the heavy lifting in those scores, and we'll break down exactly how below.
Nuria Rodriguez and Giulia Dal Pozzo were arguably the most dominant pair in either draw all round — a 6-1 6-1 demolition of Lea Godallier and Lucia Peralta Exposito that left Rodriguez on 31.7 FP and Dal Pozzo on 30.5 FP, with the opponents collecting -18.4 and -15.8 respectively. That's a punishment. Beatriz Caldera Sanchez was the standout individual scorer in the women's bracket with 32.9 FP alongside Carmen Goenaga Garcia (19.7 FP) in a clean 6-0 7-5 win over Lorena Vano and Castillon Gamez. Three-set thriller fans were well served too: Jimena Velasco Postiguillo and Raquel Eugenio Barrera edged out Noa Canovas Paredes and Marina Lobo 5-7 7-6(5) 7-5 in an absolute war, while Marta Talavan and Sofia Saiz Vallejo survived 4-6 7-5 6-4 to advance. Tamara Icardo Alcorisa and Claudia Jensen, meanwhile, made it look easy — a 6-1 6-3 win had both players sitting pretty on 20.2 FP each going into the Round of 16.
| # | Player | FP |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Julieta Evangelina Bidahorria | 38.6 |
| 2 | Virginia Riera | 37.4 |
| 3 | Beatriz Caldera Sanchez | 32.9 |
| 4 | Nuria Rodriguez | 31.7 |
| 5 | Giulia Dal Pozzo | 30.5 |
The theme of this round was crystal clear: underdog wins paid out massively, while the favourites who cruised through comfortable wins left significant FP on the table due to their low ranking multipliers. Bidahorria (38.6 FP) and Riera (37.4 FP) out-scored Coello and Tapia (18.6 FP each) despite those two winning more convincingly — because the system properly rewards the shock factor. If you had Bidahorria and Riera in your squad, you were doing a lap of honour. If you went heavy on Coello-Tapia instead, you got consistency but not the ceiling.
On the men's side, the Castaño-Hernandez pairing was the pick of the round, and if you had both, congratulations — that's 73.3 combined FP from a single match. The surprise underperformers were at the bottom of the leaderboard: Abbate and Dal Bianco both hit -12.3 FP, Moragues Moltò hit -14.4 FP, and Godallier took a brutal -18.4 FP hit. Those negative scores sting, especially when you're tight on squad budget and had to make compromises. The lesson? At R32, the blowout risk is real — avoid picking pairs who look significantly outmatched on paper.
Let's talk about how Manuel Castaño hit 40.2 FP — because it's a masterclass in how the scoring system rewards the right combination of factors. It starts at a round base of 5, which is what every R32 player begins with (up from just 1 at R64 — so making it this far already counts for something). Win the match and that base jumps: +4 for the win takes it to 9. Then Castaño and Hernandez were relentless in how they scored — a dominant 6-3 6-3 gave a game score bonus of 10.4, and strong serving stats added another 7.0 on top, bringing the subtotal to 26.4. Then the multipliers kick in. Castaño's ranking multiplier is 1.12 — meaning he's ranked outside the absolute elite tier, so the system gives him a slight boost for producing, taking the running total to 29.6. Finally, the difficulty coefficient of 1.36 reflects that Jimenez and Arroyo weren't pushovers — beating them convincingly deserves extra credit — and 29.6 × 1.36 = 40.2 FP. Bang.
Now compare that to Bidahorria's 38.6 FP and you see the other route to a monster score. Her subtotal was actually lower — round base 5, +4 for the win = 9, game score bonus of 8.8, stats bonus of 4, subtotal 21.8. She and Riera didn't have the crushing stats line Castaño had. But their difficulty coefficient? 1.58 — because beating Alejandra Salazar Bengoechea and Osoro Ulrich is a big, big deal. The algorithm saw that Bidahorria was the underdog taking down a high-profile pair, and it multiplied accordingly: 21.8 × 1.12 = 24.4, then × 1.58 = 38.6 FP. The takeaway is this: a brutal scoreline gets you a great game score bonus, but beating someone you weren't supposed to beat? That's where the real ceiling is.
💎 Back Juan Lebron going deeper — at 0.65 FP per credit he's the best value ratio among elite men still in, averaging 89.1 FP on the season. He's not the cheapest at 136.7 credits but he's criminally underpriced relative to his output.
📈 Tamara Icardo Alcorisa is the women's pick of the moment — 60.2 FP season average, 0.48 FP/credit, and a 6-1 6-3 performance in R32 that showed zero signs of slowing. At 125.1 credits she's much more affordable than the top names and she's producing.
⚡ Beatriz Caldera Sanchez (32.9 FP this round, 0.41 FP/credit) and Carmen Goenaga Garcia (19.7 FP, 0.48 FP/credit) look dangerous as a duo — Caldera is #18 ranked so her multiplier is generous, and she's clearly in form. Strong R16 hold.
🚨 Think twice before loading up on Coello and Tapia — yes, they'll advance, but at 193 and 192.5 credits with multipliers punishing elite wins, they're eating budget that could go on higher-ceiling mid-tier players. Franco Stupaczuk (89.6 FP avg, 0.52 FP/credit) advancing alongside Jon Sanz is a more cost-efficient route into a pair with genuine upset threat.
🏆 Castaño tops the entire leaderboard with 40.2 FP — his 6-3 6-3 win alongside Hernandez (33.1 FP) was the most efficient fantasy performance of the round
💥 Bidahorria and Riera stun Salazar and Osoro — the three-set upset of the round delivers 38.6 and 37.4 FP, the system's difficulty coefficient doing serious work
🧹 Multiple bagels handed out in Kuwait — Coello/Tapia dish a 6-0 second set, Rodriguez/Dal Pozzo win 6-1 6-1, Alfonso/Libaak win 6-2 6-0 — but dominant favourites are still capped by low multipliers
⚠️ Salazar and Sainz both exit — two high-profile women's names gone already, reshaping the fantasy landscape and freeing up budget for shrewder picks in the Round of 16
| # | Team | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Wiinner JaviDosuna | 432.1 |
| 2 | Padelcilu | 410.7 |
| 3 | sebsx4 | 406.6 |
| 4 | DavidCereCat | 392.9 |
| 5 | Padel CC | 379.6 |
1. At R16 the round base jumps to 10 — double-stack pairs you trust to win comfortably, since a win takes that base to 14 before game score and stats even kick in
2. Difficulty coefficients matter more than ever: check the draw before locking picks — a lower-ranked player facing a top seed could generate massive multiplied returns if they pull off the upset
3. Negative FP from blowout losses are tournament killers — if a pair looks significantly outclassed on paper at this stage, it's better to leave them on the bench than eat a -12 to -18 hit to your total
The Round of 16 is where the real points start flowing — update your squad now before the locks go in and make sure you're positioned for the big multipliers. Good luck out there.