Stupa-Di Nenno: From "SuperPibes" to the Top of Padel
Franco Stupaczuk and Martín Di Nenno were teammates as kids, split up after a tragedy that nearly ended one of their careers, and reunited to become one of the most spectacular pairs on the padel tour, before parting ways again ahead of 2026. Here's the story of the "SuperPibes".
Child prodigies
Stupaczuk and Di Nenno first played together at the 2007 Junior World Championship, aged 10 and 11, and won it. They went on to dominate the Argentine youth circuit before making the jump to Europe, winning the WPT Challenger in Barcelona in 2015 as teenagers already tipped for a big future.
The accident that changed everything
In 2016, a car accident took the lives of Hernán Rodríguez and Elías Estrella, then Argentina's top-ranked pair. Martín Di Nenno was seriously injured in the same accident and lost two friends. Physically and psychologically shattered, he stepped away from padel to rebuild himself, while Stupaczuk continued his career in Europe, becoming one of the tour's most spectacular players in his own right.
The comeback
In 2023, after years of recovery, Di Nenno returned to the tour and reunited with his childhood friend. With plenty of doubt about whether they could compete again at the top, the two Argentines wrote one of padel's best comeback stories, winning seven titles that year and finishing the season as the world's second-ranked pair, behind only Coello and Tapia. They stayed among the world's top three pairs through 2025, an up-and-down season marked by frequent partner reshuffling across the tour.
Splitting up for 2026
Ahead of the 2026 season, Stupaczuk and Di Nenno announced they were parting ways. Di Nenno has said he had hoped to continue the partnership but respected Stupaczuk's decision to play with someone else, and that the split was amicable, "a see-you-soon" rather than a permanent break, in his own words. Stupaczuk begins 2026 paired with young prospect Miguel "Mike" Yanguas, while Di Nenno starts the season alongside Jerónimo "Momo" González. Whatever happens next, the SuperPibes' 2023 comeback remains one of the sport's most followed storylines, and Di Nenno in particular remains regarded as one of padel's most naturally gifted shot-makers.
