While Arturo Coello and Agustín Tapia have just won their 36th title together in two and a half years, several media outlets have headlined that they have equaled the record held by Fernando Belasteguín and... Juan Martín Díaz. This statement is somewhat misleading. In reality, the numbers tell a very different story depending on the era and the circuit. Here's a breakdown.

Coello / Tapia: 36 express titles, in the modern era

In less than three seasons together (2022–2025), Coello and Tapia have already collected 36 titles in all competitions (WPT until 2023, Premier Padel from 2022).
They thus become:

  • the most successful pair of the era Premier Padel,
  • the first pair of 2025 to win three consecutive titles (Valladolid, Bordeaux, Malaga),
  • Belasteguín/Lima's equals in number of common titles.

It's this last piece of information that has caused a stir... but not always for the right reasons.

Tapia / Coello, the second most successful pair in history but still far from the myth of Belasteguín / Diaz

Bela / Lima: 36 titles too, but all on the World Padel Tour

Between 2015 and 2018, Fernando Belasteguín and Pablo Lima dominated the World Padel Tour, also winning 36 official titles together, in a period of great stability on the circuit.

It is to this pair that Coello and Tapia are compared.
Same total number of titles, same circuit structure, same evaluation conditions: the comparison is completely legitimate.

How many partners has… Fernando Belasteguin had?

Bela / Juan Martín Díaz: the legend above all

But be careful: when we talk about absolute records, no pair surpasses that of Fernando Belasteguín and Juan Martín Díaz.

115 titles won together between 2002 and 2014, an absolute record in the history of padel.
An incredible series of 170 finals played for 161 victories.
13 consecutive years in first place worldwide (2002 to 2014), an unparalleled longevity record.
A series of 22 consecutive tournament wins between 2005 and 2007.
On the only one World Padel Tour (2013–2014), they collected 20 titles together, before splitting up in early 2015.

Their immense track record was built before the WPT era, mainly on the Padel Pro Tour, the major professional circuit of the time.

Juan Martín Díaz and Fernando Belasteguin: 13 years of reign on padel world

Compare… but in context

It is therefore fundamental to distinguish between eras and circuits in order to objectively compare:

PairTitles togetherMain circuitsPeriod
Bela / Juan M. Diaz115PPT, WPT (20 WPT titles)2002 - 2014
Bela / Pablo Lima36World Padel Tour2015 - 2018
Coello / Tapia36WPT, Premier Padel2022 - today

Coello and Tapia match Belasteguín/Lima's title total, which is an exceptional achievement considering their youth.

But they are still far from the 115 titles of the historic pair Belasteguín / Juan Martín Díaz, a true monument of world padel.

Comparing records is interesting, provided you don't mix up circuits, eras and contexts.

And on this ground, the legend of Bela and JMD remains untouchable... for the moment.

Franck Binisti

Franck Binisti discovered padel at the Club des Pyramides in 2009 in the Paris region. Since then, padel has been part of his life. You often see him touring France to cover major French padel events.

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