"I always felt we would struggle in the beginning," said Coello after winning their quarter-final of the Modon Abu Dhabi Padel Master 2023 6-2 6-4 against Jose Garcia Diestro and 'Pincho' Fernandez. "I didn't expect us to be in the semi-finals so soon," Tapia added.
These comments were not out of character. Coello and Tapia did not look at their best at the Bab Al Nojoum complex to start their partnership, edging past Javi Barahona and Javi Garcia Mora via two tie-breaks.
Fast forward a month, and the Argentinian-Spanish tandem has taken every title, every point available after four tournaments in four different countries. They have conquered everyone and everything in their path, looking unstoppable at times.
Below, we put things into perspective, comparing Coello and Tapia's streak to season starts in prior World Padel Tour seasons.
34 sets won, two sets lost
Despite their sputtering start in Abu Dhabi, Coello and Tapia figured things out as the tournament progressed, growing stronger by the day. Their ultimate test came in the final, facing three-time reigning number ones Juan Lebron and Alejandro Galan on a court that, as the sun set over the UAE, became significantly slower.
Still, Coello and Tapia won 7-6 6-3 against the Spaniards, becoming the youngest male couple to ever win a World Padel Tour title.
An hour away from Tapia's native Catamarca, the second tournament was played in La Rioja, Argentina. The court at the SuperDomo was extremely fast, playing right into the hands of supreme hard-hitters Coello and Tapia, who blew all of their opposition away and claimed another title without dropping a set.
In Chile, the double champions would drop their first sets. Javi Martinez and Rafa Mendez won the opening gambit 4-6 in the round of 16, after which Coello and Tapia came back to win, while Lebron and Galan controversially took the second set of the final in the tie-break.
Only once before had a new couple in World Padel Tour started their partnership by winning more than ten games in a row - Pablo Lima and Fernando Belasteguin won 53 straight (!) in 2015 - but even Lima and Bela dropped more sets in their first three tournaments.
Incredibly, Coello and Tapia made it four titles in a row in Paraguay to start their project and the 2023 season - all while dropping just two sets. This has never been done before in WPT. A historically dominant start to the campaign.
Matching Juan Martin Diaz and 'Bela'
Apart from the historically good start to their project, Arturo Coello and Agustin Tapia have also started the season in a way that has only happened once before.
Only Juan Martin Diaz and Fernando Belasteguin have ever won the first four tournaments in a row, doing so in 2013, World Padel Tour's first season.
Conditions were different in 2013 for Diaz and 'Bela', as three sets needed to be won rather than two and there was no Gold Point, making their achievement ever more impressive.
Now, Coello and Tapia head into uncharted territory. Diaz and Belasteguin's winning streak to start 2013 ended in the Madrid International Open final, the fifth event of the season, when they lost to Pablo Lima and Juani Mieres in four sets.
What bodes well for Coello and Tapia is that Diaz and Belasteguin would go on to be the runaway number ones that year, as were Lima and Belasteguin in 2015 when they embarked on their abovementioned winning streak.
In either case, the 23- and 20-year-old could not have dreamt of a better start to their partnership on the court in World Padel Tour.
