Spain’s Barcelona Run Survives a Doubles Shake-Up. Mixed Comes Next

Alex Serrano Ruano and Jorge Rodriguez won men’s doubles after the top two seeds fell in the semi-finals, while Judit Castillo and Hannah Blatt turned Friday’s singles rivalry into women’s doubles gold. Players representing Spain have now shared in all four professional titles awarded at the Barcelona Open, with Sunday’s mixed competition still to come.

Key Takeaways

  • Alex Serrano Ruano and Jorge Rodriguez beat Tom Protzek and Lennard Tebbing 11–7, 5–11, 11–5 for men’s doubles gold.
  • Neither of the men’s doubles top two seeds reached the final. Serrano Ruano and Rodriguez beat Matteo Cugliari and Zane Navratil in one semi-final, while Protzek and Tebbing beat Grayson Goldin and Jhonnatan Medina Alvarez in the other.
  • Judit Castillo and Hannah Blatt, opponents in Friday’s women’s singles final, defeated Olivia McMillan and Katie Morris 11–8, 5–11, 11–5 for women’s doubles gold.
  • Castillo enters Sunday’s mixed doubles with two titles and partners Navratil, who has yet to reach a Barcelona final.

The men’s doubles final at the PPA Tour Europe Barcelona Open was missing both of its leading seeds. By the time Alex Serrano Ruano and Jorge Rodriguez defeated Tom Protzek and Lennard Tebbing 11–7, 5–11, 11–5 on Saturday evening, the draw had produced two semi-final upsets and another title involving Spanish players at the opening event of the new European season.

The women’s final provided a different continuation of Friday’s singles competition. Judit Castillo had beaten Hannah Blatt for gold as an opponent, then won alongside her less than a day later, defeating Olivia McMillan and Katie Morris 11–8, 5–11, 11–5. Castillo now has two Barcelona titles and a place in Sunday’s mixed doubles draw with Zane Navratil.

Across the four completed professional events, players representing Spain have had a hand in every gold medal. Castillo won women’s singles and women’s doubles, Jhonnatan Medina Alvarez won men’s singles, and Serrano Ruano and Rodriguez claimed men’s doubles. The sequence is a powerful opening story for an event in Spain, but Saturday also showed why the competition is worth following beyond its winners: its most prominent men’s partnerships could not make the final.

A men’s final built on two semi-final upsets

Serrano Ruano and Rodriguez had to come through Navratil and Matteo Cugliari to reach the gold match. They lost the first game of their semi-final 11–5, then won the next two 11–0, 11–1. The scores establish the scale of the reversal, although they cannot tell us on their own what caused it. They did leave one of the draw’s leading partnerships out of the final.

Protzek and Tebbing removed the other leading pair, beating Grayson Goldin and Medina Alvarez 11–6, 11–2. That ended an intriguing attempt by Friday’s men’s singles finalists to win together. Medina Alvarez had beaten Goldin 11–7, 11–2 for singles gold, and the two advanced to Saturday’s doubles semi-finals as partners before Protzek and Tebbing stopped them. WPM’s report on Friday’s singles finals captured the unusual prospect of both singles finalists returning as a team.

Neither upset was the end of the story for the teams that caused it. Serrano Ruano and Rodriguez took the first game of the final, Protzek and Tebbing answered in the second, and the Spanish pair won the decider 11–5. Their title required them to recover against Navratil and Cugliari, then respond again after losing a game in the final. It was a substantial run through a draw whose expected finalists had both fallen away.

Before play began, WPM’s Barcelona draw preview asked whether the field beneath the headline names had enough depth to challenge them. Men’s doubles has supplied a result worth examining in that light. One bracket cannot establish the order of an entire circuit, and seedings remain a measure of what was expected before play began. What Saturday demonstrated is narrower and more concrete: two different partnerships could beat the leading seeds, and Serrano Ruano and Rodriguez could then win the title against one of them.

From opposite sides of the net to the same side

The connection between Friday and Saturday was even more direct in women’s doubles. Castillo beat Blatt 11–8, 11–3 in the singles final, completing her run through the women’s main draw without dropping a game. Their next task was to function as a pair, and together they reached the doubles final against McMillan and Morris.

The championship match did not follow the straight-game pattern of Castillo’s singles final. Castillo and Blatt won the opener 11–8, lost the second 11–5, then took the decider 11–5. That response gave Blatt a gold medal after her singles silver and made Castillo a double champion at the first Barcelona event of the new season.

It also gives the tournament an unusually clear thread across its disciplines. The two women who contested its first professional final became champions together in its next women’s event. On the men’s side, Medina Alvarez and Goldin made the same transition from singles opponents to doubles partners but stopped one round short. Those different outcomes give Saturday’s results more meaning than a list of medals alone.

Spain’s run needs care in how it is described. Castillo, Serrano Ruano and Rodriguez are Spanish winners in the completed events, while men’s singles champion Medina Alvarez was born in Venezuela and has represented Spain in pickleball. His title belongs in the story of Spain’s Barcelona success without losing sight of his background.

Castillo and Navratil carry different stakes into mixed

Sunday’s mixed doubles draw pairs Castillo with Navratil. For Castillo, it offers the chance of a third gold medal after victories in singles and women’s doubles. For Navratil, it is his remaining route to a Barcelona final after Krisztian Kaszoni beat him in Friday’s men’s singles quarter-finals and Serrano Ruano and Rodriguez beat him and Cugliari in Saturday’s doubles semi-finals.

They are far from the only pairing with a recent Barcelona story. Blatt enters with Goldin, bringing together Friday’s two singles silver medallists. Medina Alvarez is paired with McMillan, Saturday’s women’s doubles finalist, while Protzek plays with Morris after both finished runners-up in doubles. Rodriguez returns with María Fernández Costantino, giving one of Saturday’s men’s champions another opportunity on the closing day.

The supplied mixed bracket places Castillo and Navratil against the winner of Alícia Roca and Sergi Ventura versus Mathieu Roy and Arianna Raga. Medina Alvarez and McMillan are in a section that also contains Blatt and Goldin, although neither team can be treated as the other’s next opponent until the intervening matches are played. These are prospective paths rather than results, and the official tournament page should be checked as Sunday’s matches progress.

The question at the start of mixed doubles is whether the patterns of the first two days will continue. Castillo has converted a singles title into doubles gold, yet Navratil’s two campaigns have ended before a final. Players representing Spain have featured in every winning team so far, yet the men’s doubles draw showed how quickly the apparent route to a title can change. Sunday will give Barcelona its final champions and a fuller first impression of the competition PPA Tour Europe can produce.

Further Reading

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Chris Beaumont

Founder and Editor-in-Chief
ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Chris Beaumont is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of World Pickleball Magazine. Chris follows the global game closely, reporting on the latest news, developments, stories and tournaments from all five continents. He also hosts the World Pickleball Podcast, interviewing people at…

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