Fernando Belasteguín's last match: the career behind the goodbye

Fernando Belasteguín played his last professional match in Milan on 5 December 2024. Alongside Tino Libaak, he lost 6–3, 6–4 to Javi Garrido and Lucas Bergamini. The result ended his playing career, but explaining the goodbye takes more than reading the score: Bela had finished at the top of the sport for 16 successive seasons, with two different partners.

If you came to padel recently, the name can arrive before the explanation. You hear “Bela”, see the tributes and understand that somebody important has stopped playing. The missing part is the scale of the career, and how far its final chapter stretched beyond the years at No.1.

His story is worth following backwards from Milan. There is a long partnership, a successful new pairing, a later title beside another partner, and finally a player learning to enjoy achievements he says he struggled to appreciate while competing.

One more match in Milan

The ending had almost arrived a day earlier. On 4 December, Belasteguín and Libaak beat brothers Nuno and Miguel Deus 6–4, 6–4. FIP's report describes a second-set recovery from 4–2 down. They had bought another evening on court, rather than a ceremonial extension of the farewell. FIP's report of that win records the result and the next opponents.

That gives the last match a particular tension. The people waiting to say goodbye could not decide when the goodbye happened. There was still a draw, still an opposing pair trying to win, and still a route to another round. For a spectator, retirement was a story. For the four players, there was a match to finish.

The following evening, Garrido and Bergamini won. FIP's account places the end at 9:38pm Italian time and reports that Belasteguín's last shot found the net. It also records an emotional response from both winners, followed by the crowd's tribute.

Belasteguín's own response was calmer than the scene might suggest. Speaking after the defeat, he said he felt at peace and had given everything he could. The official final-match account preserves that contrast between a noisy farewell and his description of relief.

The No.1 run belonged to two partnerships

FIP's historical ranking table lists Belasteguín with Juan Martín Díaz from 2002 through 2014, then with Pablo Lima from 2015 through 2017. That is 13 seasons followed by three. The familiar 16-season record therefore includes a change of partner, rather than one pair staying together for the whole run. Check the ranking history.

For anyone who has nervously asked a new partner which side they prefer, there is something recognisable in that distinction, although the professional stakes are entirely different. A pair is a shared project. Change one player and the names on the entry form tell only a small part of what has changed. The longevity belongs in the story alongside the individual fame.

The change from Díaz to Lima gives the record another shape. The first chapter was long enough to look permanent; the next still lasted three seasons at the top. Reading only the total hides that second beginning.

In a May 2026 interview with Infobae, his first answer about staying at the top credited his partners. He also described leaving victories behind quickly and returning to notes about what he wanted to improve. That is his recollection of his professional approach, not a recommendation that a recreational player should stop enjoying a good evening. The original interview gives his words their context.

The career carried on after No.1

The top-ranking years ended well before the farewell. That gap is easy to lose when a player is introduced through their greatest achievement. “Sixteen years at No.1” sounds like a complete career in a sentence. It leaves little room for the player who kept competing after the sentence stopped being true.

One later result makes the point neatly. On 4 December 2022, Belasteguín and Arturo Coello won the Mexico Major final against Agustín Tapia and Sanyo Gutiérrez, 6–3, 3–6, 6–3. The FIP match record supplies the date, teams and score.

FIP's November 2024 tournament preview identified that 2022 Mexico Major as his last tournament title. It set out the final sequence ahead: Mexico, Milan and a tribute at the Barcelona Finals. Mexico was the last title in the rear-view mirror, Milan was still ahead, and Barcelona was waiting to say thank you. Read the dated tournament preview.

A short map of the career and farewell

This is a selected chronology, not a complete results database. The season ranges come from FIP's historical ranking table; the later rows use its dated event records. The two partnership ranges contain 13 and three seasons respectively, counted inclusively.

The last distinction saves a little confusion. A retirement announcement, a final competitive match and a tribute can all generate a “Bela says goodbye” headline. They do not have to describe the same occasion. The 7 December report explicitly looks back to the defeat two days earlier.

A farewell bigger than the final score

FIP's account of the Milan tribute describes three rackets brought onto court by ballkids and career images shown on the arena screen. The ceremony was called “Grazie Bela”. That is a different way to frame the end from the score beside Garrido and Bergamini's names: an occasion to look back at the whole career, rather than ask for one more win. The official tribute report.

Enjoying the record afterwards

In his December 2025 interview with AS, Belasteguín said that learning to stop being No.1 had been harder than getting there. Read the original AS interview.

There is a familiar sporting frustration in that answer, even for somebody whose greatest achievement is getting through a club tournament without losing the score. While you are competing, the next task can swallow the previous result. In Bela's case, that ordinary-sounding habit sits beside an extraordinary record. His later description allows a little satisfaction back into a story so often told through the next thing he had to win.

Asked by Infobae how padel had first entered his life, he recalled two courts appearing in his hometown of Pehuajó in 1989. By that account, the career began with a new place to play in a small town. It is a pleasingly ordinary starting point for somebody whose eventual goodbye needed an arena screen.

Where Bela fits in padel's wider story

The history of padel's professional circuits gives the wider setting for these years. For the latest leaders, use the current player rankings; a retired champion's historical record and today's standings answer different questions.

If you want to bring the partnership discussion back to your own court, the partner communication guide deals with a smaller, practical task: agreeing what you both mean before the first point. Bela's career does not supply a shortcut to being a better pair, and a new partner will probably prefer a clear call to a lecture about professional history.

Keep the chronology handy when an old match or another tribute appears. Start with the date, look at the partner beside him, and place that moment in the career.

Sources and scope

Checked on 5 November 2026. Match and season facts use the opened FIP records; personal reflections are attributed to the original interviews. No footage was analysed and no interview was conducted for this article. The chronology is selective. Different pages use different scopes for career title totals, so no combined career total is asserted here.

• FIP: Ranking History; Mexico Major final record, 4 December 2022; Mexico Major preview, 26 November 2024; Milan match reports, 4 and 5 December 2024; Milan tribute report, 7 December 2024. Links appear beside the relevant passages.
• Darío Coronel, Infobae: original interview with Fernando Belasteguín, 20 May 2026.
• AS: “Belasteguín: Llevo un año disfrutando los 16 como número 1”, 22 December 2025.