Godallier and Valenzuela Blank Bellver and Gallardo to Win FIP Silver Espoo

Lea Godallier and Daiara Valenzuela are turning FIP Silver finals into a habit. The top seeds beat Sandra Bellver Fructuoso and Alba Gallardo Salvado 6-2, 6-0 in the women's final at FIP Silver ESC Padel II in Espoo, Finland, on Saturday, closing out the indoor event without facing a real threat in the second set.

A clean week in Finland

Godallier and Valenzuela, seeded first, needed straight sets in every round except the semifinal. They opened with a 6-0, 7-5 win over Tordoff and Leinus, followed that with a 6-3, 6-4 quarterfinal win over Gibson and Fernandez Garcia, then survived a wobble against seventh-seeded Molinilla Paniagua and Morinigo Gomez, winning 6-0, 3-6, 6-2. The final against fifth-seeded Bellver Fructuoso and Gallardo Salvado never got that close. Espoo is the pair's fourth shared FIP Silver title since June, after Narbonne, Porto and Alcala de Guadaira.

From a Barcelona letdown to a Finland title

The title caps a turnaround. Godallier and Valenzuela had entered a recent Barcelona event as favorites and let a big third-set lead slip away, a defeat that stung enough that the pair brought in coach Baptiste Benetoux for a dedicated block of mental and tactical work before Espoo. With the trophy in hand, the team is now shifting its focus to the Roland Garros Premier Padel major, and has opted to skip the FIP Bronze event in Marnes-la-Coquette to manage its schedule heading into that bigger test.

What it means

Four titles in three months puts Godallier and Valenzuela among the form pairs on the FIP Silver circuit this season, and the early results suggest their partnership, still young by tour standards, is settling in fast.