Coello and Tapia, payback against Diestro and Esbri. Paquito awaits on Friday

Arturo Coello and Agustin Tapia had a score to settle. From Paraguay to Italy, from Asuncion to the Foro Italico, this time the world No.1s showed no mercy to José Diestro and Juanlu Esbri, who had defeated them in the South American P2. A dominant performance by Coello and Tapia in their debut on Centre Court, after starting their BNL Italy Major Premier Padel campaign on Pietrangeli. The round-of-16 match lasted one hour and 14 minutes, with Coello and Tapia winning 6-3 6-2. They will face a duo also hungry for revenge on Friday (not before 8 PM): Paquito Navarro and Lucas Bergamini, whom Arturito and Agus beat in the Buenos Aires P1 final. Paquito, a crowd favourite in Rome, came close to elimination: after dropping the second set against Edu Alonso and Jairo Bautista, the sixth seeds pulled away, dropping just one game in the decider (7-6 3-6 6-1).

While the top quarterfinal followed expectations and the entry list, the second quarter saw the No.7 seeds fall: Juan Tello and Martin Di Nenno were ousted in straight sets (7-6 6-2) by one of the tour's newer pairings, Fran Guerrero and Javi Leal (13). The first set was very tight, but in the second Di Nenno suffered a left ankle sprain, forcing him to stay on court just for formality. Guerrero and Leal now advance to face Coki Nieto and Mike Yanguas (4), who after dropping a set in their opener against Teo Zapata and José Jimenez, breezed past Alex Chozas and Sanyo Gutierrez (15) 6-3 7-5.