Padel
Martina Calvo and Claudia Fernández are rewriting padel history
Martina Calvo and Claudia Fernández have made a stunning start as a team, reaching three finals in four tournaments and tearing up the record books along the way.
Premier Padel’s top-ranked pair, Gemma Triay and Delfina Brea, had beaten fourth seeds Martina Calvo and Claudia Fernández seven days earlier in Pretoria, in a third-set tiebreak after two hours and 53 minutes.
On August 9 in London, the same four players met again in the final. This time, the result went the other way. Fernández and Calvo won 7-5, 6-3 in an hour and 45 minutes.
Calvo was 18 years, one month and four days old that afternoon. Nobody younger has ever won a title at the top level of professional padel. She broke Andrea Ustero’s record by 20 days. Alongside Fernández, who turned 20 in February, she also formed the youngest pair to win a Qatar Airways Premier Padel Tour event, in only their second tournament as a team.
Five weeks later, the pair knocked the world number ones out of the Paris Major at Roland Garros and reached the final there too. That made three finals in four tournaments, from a partnership announced in early July.
Here's how Calvo and Fernández are building exceptional chemistry so quickly, and the qualities behind their success as a team.
01
The pairing nobody expected so soon
Calvo and Fernández were already proving themselves to be difference makers individually, but few could have predicted that the time had already come for the two young stars to join forces.
Their partnership came from a straight swap. On July 7, four players changed sides at once. Fernández left Sofía Araújo, Calvo left Marta Ortega, and the new pairings were Fernández with Calvo and Araújo with Ortega.
Neither half of the swap had been working particularly well. Fernández and Araújo reached the Valencia P1 final in June and lost to Ustero and Ari Sánchez. Calvo and Ortega had one strong week at the same tournament, beating second-ranked Bea González and Paula Josemaría 7-5, 7-6 in the quarter-finals, but had little else to show across the first half of the season.
Spanish padel media framed the new Calvo – Fernández partnership as a project rather than a finished product. There were reasonable questions about who would lead, and how quickly their aggressive, fast-paced styles could fit together. The answers arrived faster than anyone expected.
02
The record Martina Calvo broke in London
Martina Calvo celebrates after winning the 2026 London Premier Padel P1
© Samo Vidic/Red Bull Content Pool
Calvo was born in Pamplona on July 5, 2008. She turned 18 five weeks before the London P1 and won it on August 9, making her 18 years, one month and four days old on the day of the final.
Andrea Ustero set the previous mark, and Calvo beat it by 20 days. She did it against Triay and Brea, the top seeds, the world number ones and the pair who'd already won five tournaments in 2026 by the time they walked on court in London.
Fernández and Calvo were the fourth seeds. They were also the fifth different pair to win a title in 2026, in a season that two teams had controlled almost completely. The Triay – Brea and González – Josemaría pairings had won 10 of the 13 tournaments played before Pretoria, six of them by González – Josemaría. Ustero – Sánchez won Riyadh and Valencia, while Claudia Jensen – Tamara Icardo won Bordeaux. Nobody else had won a title.
03
Pretoria P1: two points from a debut title
The duo were two points from a first tournament win in Pretoria
© Premier Padel/Red Bull Content Pool
Their first tournament together was the Pretoria P1 in South Africa, from July 27 to August 2. They entered as the fourth seeds, but were still adapting to each other’s playing style and mentality. Despite doubts about how such young players would compete as a team at the highest level, they reached the final in their first competitive week together.
The final lasted two hours and 53 minutes. Fernández and Calvo took the second set in a tiebreak after Triay and Brea had twice failed to close out the match. In the third, they served for the title at 30-15 but couldn't convert. Triay and Brea won the deciding tiebreak 7-4 on a Calvo volley that went long, making it their fifth title of the season.
Despite the crushing defeat at the last moment, the partnership was already showing extraordinary potential. In their first week together against the best pair in the world, they came within two points of a title.
04
London P1: the win over the world’s top-ranked pair
Calvo and Fernández raise the London P1 trophy alongside Tapia and Coello
© Samo Vidic/Red Bull Content Pool
London came just seven days later. Fernández and Calvo came through the semi-finals against second seeds González and Josemaría with an emphatic 6-2, 6-4 victory, then met Triay and Brea again in the final.
The rematch took an hour and 45 minutes. It was Fernández and Calvo’s second final in two tournaments, and this time the young pair were ready to come out on top. They won the first set 7-5 and the second 6-3. The difference between the two performances was clear in the closing stages, when they showed they would do whatever it took to ensure the match didn't end as it had in Pretoria.
Calvo, at just 18, secured her first Premier Padel title, becoming the youngest player ever to do so in the women’s competition and fulfilling the dream most padel players spend entire 20-year careers chasing.
05
Madrid P1: three match points and a lesson
Madrid, from August 31 to September 6, was the week that didn't go their way. Fernández arrived chasing a third consecutive Madrid title with a third different partner. For Calvo, it was another chance to show she was ready for the brightest lights at one of the calendar’s most important tournaments.
Despite the positive momentum from previous tournaments, they lost the semi-final to González and Josemaría 6-4, 2-6, 7-5. They held three match points in the third set and lost all three. González and Josemaría hadn't taken a single set off them in previous meetings that season, but turned the match around anyway.
The result is worth remembering given what it meant in their short time together. Across four tournaments, Madrid was the one where the pair showed a clear drop in level, but it also gave them an opportunity to bounce back.
06
Paris Major: one step short of glory
Martina Calvo is one of the most aggressive players in the world
© Samo Vidic/Red Bull Content Pool
The Alpine Paris Major at Roland Garros, the week after the Madrid P1, gave them the best win of the partnership so far. Seeded fourth, they met top seeds and defending champions Triay and Brea in the semi-final and won 6-4, 6-2.
Calvo controlled the cross-court exchanges, while Fernández took Brea’s court coverage out of the match. Spanish coverage of the semi-final noted that the ranking order appeared inverted on court, with the younger pair dictating play and the experienced pair chasing. The win made them the youngest pair to reach a Major final in women’s padel history. The four finalists in Paris had a combined age of 86, making it the youngest women’s Major final ever played.
The final brought a different lesson, and another sign that the pair’s strongest performances may still be ahead of them. Ari Sánchez and Andrea Ustero won 6-2, 6-0. Fernández and Calvo started stiffly, made a run of errors and never found the aggression that had carried them through the week. Sánchez, at 29, ran the match from the first game. Calvo, however, still left Paris at a career-high world number eight, having passed Sofía Araújo in the rankings.
07
The qualities that make Calvo and Fernández a dangerous team
Both Calvo and Fernández play with unusual poise and patience for their age
© Samo Vidic/Red Bull Content Pool
Several patterns stand out when looking at how Calvo and Fernández complement each other. If they continue to make the most of these strengths, refine their weaknesses and stay consistent as a team, they have the tools to become one of the leading pairings on the tour.
The sides fit without adjustment. Calvo plays the backhand side, while Fernández plays the forehand. Fernández has spent her entire career alongside left-side players, including Triay, Bea González and Araújo. Calvo spent the first half of 2026 alongside forehand specialist Marta Ortega. Neither player had to relearn a position for the partnership to work, helping the pair produce results immediately rather than spend weeks settling in.
The experience is unevenly distributed, and that helps. Fernández has 13 career titles at 20, with a career-high ranking of three. Calvo, at 18, already has one. Despite their age, both players have shown remarkable poise, patience and determination against more experienced opponents.
Calvo and Fernández don't hesitate to attack and finish points early, even when that involves a higher level of risk. Both players take the net at the first opportunity, and at the Paris Major that produced the rare sight of Triay and Brea defending for long stretches.
The individual match-ups also work in their favour against the current number ones. Calvo holds the cross-court exchange against Triay, the rally around which the Triay and Brea system is built. Fernández takes away Brea’s court coverage by shortening points before Brea can turn defence into attack. That combination helps explain how a pair with just four tournaments together has beaten the best team in the world twice, with both wins coming in straight sets, while the loss went to a deciding tiebreak.
It's clear that they learn quickly between matches, with the Pretoria-to-London sequence the clearest example: the same opponents, the same round, seven days apart and a three-set loss turned into a straight-sets win.
The one area where they still have room for improvement is closing out matches. They missed two match points in Pretoria, three in Madrid, and were on the wrong end of a crushing 2-6, 0-6 final in Paris. Everything else in their game is already at the level required to beat the best pair in the world, which they have now done twice.
08
How to watch Claudia Fernández and Martina Calvo
26 min
Premier Padel London P1 highlights
Watch all the best moments as London hosted another P1 Premier Padel classic.
Red Bull TV broadcasts every Premier Padel match from the quarter-finals onwards, which means every match from Friday to Sunday, the final stages Calvo and Fernández are already used to competing in.
Find more information on all tournaments, including ticketing, match schedules, current scores, player updates and the latest news on the Premier Padel website.
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