Battle between Argentina couples is the highlight of Thursday

The second day of the World Padel Tour Decathlon Open is also 'the gift that keeps on giving'. On Thursday 12 October, the doors of AFAS Live opened as early as 9.30am and from 10am onwards, it was pure spectacle all day in the pop temple that has been converted into a padel palace.

Despite the loss of many top players on Wednesday, the sold-out AFAS Live once again went all out on the second day of the tournament. And the spectators were not remotely disappointed. Clement Geens -the first Belgian ever to play in a main tournament of the WPT- and his partner Benjamin Tison -the first Frenchman ever to play in the second round of the WPT- put the heat on Alejandro Galan and Juan Lebron. These padel legends won the German Open earlier this month, are the former No 1 in the world and placed 3rd in Amsterdam. The Belgian-French duo forced them to the limit in the first set with a tie-break. After that, however, the resistance was broken and the Spaniards won the second set 6-0. In the quarterfinals they will meet the duo Gutierrez/Gutierrez.

There was also plenty of spectacle in the ladies' category. Against Martinez and Ruiz, the Spanish number 1 of the world went level in the first set with 7-5, but after 6-1 in the second set they qualified for the quarterfinals rather easily. The runners-up of the World Padel Tour Decathlon Amsterdam Open are Gemma Triay and Marta Ortega. They dealt with Lucia Martinez and Carmen Goenaga 6-4, 6-3 in their eighth final.

Another routine player is 47-year-old Carolina Navarro, who was world number 1 for no less than nine years and currently ranks 40th. She and her 20 years younger partner Marina Guinart easily settled the Sharifova/Borrero duo (6-4, 6-2) on Thursday. For the quarterfinals, they can now get ready for a confrontation with number one Sanchez and Josemaria. That will also be the opening match on centre court in AFAS Live at 11 am.

Tello and Ruiz qualified for the quarter-finals after a thrilling match against Garcia and Barahona (7-6 and 7-5), while the second-placed Stupaczuk and Di Nenno served up a true main course in the Argentinean showdown with Libaak and Augsburger in the opening match of the evening session. In three sets, Stupaczuk and Di Nenno pulled off the spectacle and they made sure the audience was regularly on the benches with spectacular rallies. In the quarter-finals on Friday, they will take on the pair Belluati/Ruiz, who dealt with Cepero and Chozas seemingly easily.

The last match of the evening was concluded by crowd favourite Paquito Navarro and his partner Federico Chingotto. The stylist once again showed beautiful actions for the audience to enjoy. While opponents Benítez and Alonso still offered resistance in the first set (6-4), Paquito and Chingotto thundered over them in the second set (6-1).