Guerrero and Leal Win Lyon Platinum With Phone-Call Message to Selector

A Statement Result Against the Men Who Made the Squad

Fran Guerrero and Javi Leal won the FIP Platinum Lyon final at the Palais des Sports de Gerland on Sunday, coming from a set behind to beat number-one seeds Franco Stupaczuk and Jon Sanz 4-6, 6-4, 6-1. The title itself was significant — it is their second FIP Platinum of the 2026 season after Marseille in February, and their second on French soil. What elevated the moment into something altogether louder was what happened immediately after the final point: both players raised their hands to their ears in a phone-call mime, a gesture aimed unmistakably at Spain World Cup selector Juanjo Gutiérrez, who had confirmed their omission from the Doha squad just three days earlier.

Comeback Forged on Attitude

Stupaczuk and Sanz, the top seeds and one of the most decorated pairs on the circuit, started with authority, taking the first set 6-4 and looking in control. Guerrero and Leal responded in the second with sharper defence and cleaner net play, edging it 6-4 before closing out a dominant third set 6-1. "There is little tactics," Guerrero told reporters after the match. "It is mainly our attitude." That attitude has now produced four finals in 2026, with two titles to show for it — both on French soil.

The victory also carried a specific irony: Jon Sanz, standing on the losing side of the net at the Gerland, was one of the players Gutiérrez chose over Leal when assembling the final World Cup 16. The contrast was difficult to ignore.

The Call That Never Came

On 24 September Gutiérrez named Spain's final roster for the FIP World Cup in Doha, running 2–7 November. Guerrero and Leal had featured in the preliminary selection but did not survive the final cut. Their exclusion drew significant criticism across Spanish padel media in the days that followed. Both players chose to let their rackets do the talking in Lyon — until the final whistle blew.

Reports from the Gerland arena indicated Leal told the press: "The selector will have seen where we are." The simultaneous phone gesture, performed at the exact moment of victory, swiftly became the defining image of the tournament weekend. It circulated widely online and renewed debate about a squad selection that can no longer be revised.

Rotterdam Next, Seeded Seventh at the Ahoy

Leal confirmed the pair would travel directly from Lyon to Rotterdam, where the CUPRA Rotterdam Premier Padel P2 runs from 28 September to 4 October at the Rotterdam Ahoy. Guerrero and Leal enter as seventh seeds, with a projected path that could set up a quarter-final against two-time defending Ahoy champions and top seeds Arturo Coello and Agustín Tapia. Coello and Tapia are chasing a third successive Rotterdam title and will not play their first main-draw match until Thursday; they first face the winners of Alonso and Goñi before any potential meeting with the Lyon champions.

Arriving at the Ahoy as the week's most talked-about pair, with the World Cup absence as a constant backdrop, Guerrero and Leal will find no shortage of motivation on court. The Doha tournament opens on 2 November at the Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex with a record prize fund of €1.2 million equally split between men and women.