Is Padel An Olympic Sport?

Is Padel An Olympic Sport
Padel’s international recognition – The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has recognized padel as an international sport. This status was obtained on 13th September 2019. Therefore, the sport of padel is only a step away from being recognized as an Olympic tournament.

Is padel a professional sport?

One of Europe’s fastest growing grassroots sports, Padel is easy to play, fun and sociable – and it’s just been officially recognised as a form of tennis. Loved by famous sporting figures and played across the globe, find out more about one of the world’s fastest-growing sports.1) Padel was invented in Mexico in the 1960s Although a similar sport was played on British cruise ships and in Washington and New York in the 1910s – a game appropriately named platform tennis – it was in 1969 when padel, as it is played today, was created.

Mexican businessman Enrique Corcuera set up the first-ever padel court at his holiday home in Acapulco – and the rest is history.2) Padel is played in doubles Padel courts are designed for four players and are roughly 25 per cent smaller than the size of a tennis court.
The speed of the game, combined with the smaller size of a padel court, makes singles play difficult, and most padel matches feature two pairs of players.

Some padel courts are designed especially for singles, but around 90 per cent of all padel courts in the world are doubles specific. At a professional level only doubles is played on the World Padel Tour, the leading competition for elite players. Is Padel An Olympic Sport Image: People play a padel match in Bois d’Arcy near Paris (Picture Credit: www.padelmagazine.fr)

Padel receives recognition as a discipline of tennis Aussie Open details to be finalised ‘very soon’ Dan Evans: The state of British tennis, Andy Murray and 2021

3) Padel rules are similar to tennis – but you serve underarm In padel scoring is the same as tennis – but there are many differences between the sports. A padel court has walls, so shots can be played off them, like in squash. Also, unlike tennis, when a ball is served it must bounce once on the floor then hit from below, or at, waist height. Is Padel An Olympic Sport Image: Barcelona star Lionel Messi is a huge fan of padel Arguably the world’s best footballer, Lionel Messi, is known to be a huge fan of padel. The sport – which is played by around two million people in his native Argentina – is popular with many footballers, with the likes of Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Gerard Pique and Francesco Totti also known to be regular players.

Messi is such a fan that he has a court at his home in Barcelona, Spain, and has been seen playing there against former team-mate Luis Suarez.5) It’s the second-most-popular sport in Spain Not only is padel wildly popular in Argentina, but it’s most commonly played in Spain.
The European country has more than 20,000 padel courts, with an estimated four million active players.

Behind football, it’s the country’s second-most-popular sport.6) Jamie Murray has played in a professional padel tournament Another well-known padel advocate is seven-time Grand Slam champion Jamie Murray. The former doubles World No 1 tennis player has described padel as ‘a social sport I play with my friends’ and even took part in a British Padel Tour event in 2015.7) Padel balls are smaller than tennis balls On first glance padel and tennis balls are almost identical – but there’s a big difference.

Download the Sky Sports Scores App: Apple | Android The UK’s No 1 scores app: Find out more

8) Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp plays padel with his coaches Is Padel An Olympic Sport Image: Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp plays padel with his coaches In an interview with the Daily Mirror it was revealed that football manager Jurgen Klopp is a regular on the padel court – and he uses the game as a place to discuss ideas with his coaches.

His assistant manager, Pep Lijnders, said: “The game has been a nice distraction from our daily routine.
And yet, sometimes we come up with the best ideas to solve issues during these games.
We sit down on a bench in between two sets and we discuss solutions for football problems.
In fact, we do that a lot.

When you are constantly playing matches or doing top-level training sessions every day, there is no time to wind down. “So these games are the perfect moments to relax.” 9) There are more than 6,000 padel players in the UK As of November 2020, there are around 6,000 active padel players across the UK.

There are also currently 82 padel courts in Britain at 45 clubs – a number that is set to grow substantially over the coming years. (10) Padel is not an Olympic sport (yet) While padel is not an Olympic sport there have been many calls for it to become one, as it continues to grow worldwide. Currently padel is played in 57 countries across the world – in order to qualify as an Olympic sport, the sport must be played in at least 75 countries.

As it continues to go global, let’s watch this space padel fans! The LTA has been recognised as the national governing body for Padel. Find out more about how the organisation plans to grow the sport in the UK and how you can get involved at lta.org.uk.

Why is padel so popular?

Padel is open to everyone Simply put, anyone can play padel – it doesn’t matter your age, ability or background, everyone is welcome on court. Padel is easy to pick up for beginners and even if you’ve never played before, you’ll find yourself rallying with friends and family in no time with our unique padel tips for beginners,

Compared to other sports, padel is less about technique and power when you first start playing, so everyone is at more of a level playing field right from the off.
Serves are underarm, balls have a slightly lower compression and the racket is closer to your hand, making it easier to control your shots.

Check out our padel kit guide Padel is a great workout Fast, thrilling and unpredictable – padel is a great way to get your sweat on, while having fun with friends and family. Padel is all about movement, whether you’re darting across the court to hit a tough shot or getting back into position with your partner, and it’s a brilliant, low impact sport to help you stay fit and healthy. If you’re looking for a more competitive edge, there’s a whole host of LTA padel competitions taking place every year around Great Britain, with plans for even more in the future. This year there were over 100 competitions in Britain with more than 3000 players competing and we’re only just getting started. While it’s a great sport for beginners, professional padel is one of the best sports in the world to watch live. Non-stop action, unbelievable skill and shots that will blow your mind – if you’ve never watched the pro game, then now is your time to start.

We’ve seen several of the top British players making waves of the world stage this year.
British No.1 Tia Norton won the inaugural London Padel Open in September 2022 and led a strong performance for the Brits at the World Padel Championship qualifiers in Derby.
Speaking of the World Championships, the British men’s team, featuring the likes of Christian Medina Murphy, Richard Brooks, Sam Jones and Louis Harris, qualified for the finals in Dubai, where they eventually finished 14 th,

Check out our British padel player profiles

What is padel called in America?

Padel For other uses, see, “Padel tennis” redirects here. Not to be confused with, Racket sport Padel Padel players on outdoor padel courts Highest (FIP)NicknamesPaddle (US, Canada)First played1969, Acapulco, MexicoCharacteristicsContactNoTeam membersUsually doublesSeparate competitions (mixed sometimes in leagues)TypeEquipment, VenueOutdoor or indoor PresenceCountry or regionWorldwideNoNo Padel (: pádel ), sometimes called Padel Tennis is a typically played in doubles on an enclosed court slightly smaller than a doubles,

Although Padel shares the same scoring system as, the rules, strokes, and technique are different.
The balls used are similar but with a little less pressure.
The main differences are that the court has walls and the balls can be played off them in a similar way as in the game of and that solid, stringless bats are used.

The height of the ball being served must be at or below the waist level. The sport is thought to have been invented in by Enrique Corcuera in 1969, after he modified his squash court to incorporate elements of, Many well-known professional padel players have previously competed in tennis, including former players and,

Why is padel not popular in USA?

MBA Sports Management. Professional Tennis Management. Sales. Customer Service. Customer Satisfaction. Coaching. Ultra Runner. – Published Nov 12, 2015 Considered the fastest growing racket sport in the world, international paddle or padel can be described as a hybrid game that combines the unique characteristics of tennis, squash, and racquetball.

Padel is mainly played doubles. The court is one third the size of a tennis court enclosed with wire mesh and glass walls which you can play off when you need to. Rules are a mixture of squash and tennis, and use the same scoring system as tennis. If you have not seen a game or padel court before, check this explanatory video.

I have been following –online- the development of padel in the United States for about two years, and you may agree -or not-the sport does not seem to develop at the speed many of us expected. After some efforts there are a few venues with padel courts mainly located in Huston, TX, Miami, FL (very focused on Spanish speaking market), Los Angeles, CA.

A few Spanish entrepreneurs have established themselves in US with hopes to develop the sport, including The Padel Box and Padel Hub who earned an entrepreneurship contest in Spain for their padel internationalization project, and set exhibition courts during the tennis Masters in Miami. However, the US market does not seem to embrace this sport.

Obviously, The US market seems promising, and serious development of the sport in this market could mean millions of dollars for court manufacturers, importers, distributors, million in sales of padel gear and balls, and millions a year spent on padel lessons.

Barriers to entry : high requisites to obtain investors visa, high initial costs to develop a new sport (mobile court, exhibitions, etc) Poor marketing No real interest The pre-existance of similar forms of paddle sports like paddle (mainly played in California) or platform tennis.

What countries play the most padel?

Padel is growing very fast across the world, but where is padel popular? Where are the best and most desired places to play at? The sport has seen celebrities from all over the world playing it, and people are going on about this sport, but where is padel popular and where do people play it the most? Where is padel popular? Spain. Spain is where padel is most popular, with over 4 million players and most of the professional players in the world padel tour representing Spain at the highest level! If you go on holiday to Spain, or live out there, then you will know about padel, the best players are huge celebrities there. Padel is bigger than tennis in Spain, only football being more popular!

Why is padel so expensive?

The materials are expensive. – The most common material used in the majority of padel rackets is carbon. Carbon, unfortunately, is expensive. This is because carbon takes a long time to produce, a lot of work and money goes into this. Now in all the top padel rackets, there main frame is 100% carbon, and a lot of them as well have a face made of carbon. Is Padel An Olympic Sport

Why is padel addictive?

An addictive adrenaline sport – A healthy addiction is how you can describe the hobby of playing padel. Padel is addictive simply because it’s easy and fun to play. Anyone can play the sport of padel as it’s simpler than tennis and more exciting than badminton. These reasons make padel an adrenaline packed sport.

Is padel a hard sport?

Learn the Technique – The final of the padel tips (and probably the most important) – take time to learn the technique. Padel is a relatively easy sport to pick up, with only an entry level technique required. It means that often players do not think they need to learn the technique.

This means the player is most likely getting into bad habits! Let me tell you from a padel coach’s perspective, it is much easier for me to correct a player’s technique when they are just starting – rather than a player that has been playing for years without early guidance! This does not need to be in the form of expensive lesson and the beauty of the modern world is that you can have access to excellent advice for very little and on your phone.

The most important part of your introduction to padel is that you enjoy the game! As a long term padel player, coach and “motivator” this is one thing I never have to worry about – if you’ve stepped on court with 3 friends and have played your first game, I have no doubt you had a good time!

Where was padel invented?

History of padel Padel as a sport originated in 1969 in the Mexican beach resort of Acapulco. The founder of padel. Enrique Corcuera, was a rich business man. At home, he didn’t have enough space to put in a tennis courts, so he came up with a similar sport.

He created a court that was 10 by 20 metres in size and surrounded by 3-4 metre high walls.
A net divided the court into two equal sides.
Because of the smaller playing field, he decided to play with wooden rackets that were smaller than traditional tennis rackets.
In the beginning, padel was only played by the Mexican elite, but through Alfonso De Hohenlohe, a Spanish friend of Corcuera, it ended up in Spain.

De Hohenlohe introduced the sport in Marbella, where the first European padelclub was founded in 1974. The first players were all rich friends of De Hohenlohe. When Spanish king Juan Carlos and ex-Wimbledon champion Manolo Santana started promoting the sport, its popularity rose quickly.

The development of the sport took another great leap as a friend of De Hohenlohe, Julio Menditengui, brought the sport to Argentina.
In Argentina, padel grew to become a national sport with more than 10,000 courts and 2 million players.
In Spain the amount of players already reached 1 million in the 90s making it one of the fastest growing sports in the world.

In 2014 it was estimated that all over the world more than 10 million people were playing the sport. Spain and Argentina remain. to this day, the top countries in official tournaments and international competition. The first World Championships were organised in 1992 in Seville, Spain with delegations from 11 different countries from Europe and America participating.

How many countries play padel?

What countries play padel? – Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, England, France, Germany, India, Italy, Mexico, Paraguay, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, The United States, Uruguay, Finland, United Arab Emirates, the UK, and Ireland.

Can you play padel on a tennis court?

Can you play padel on a tennis court? – No, you can’t play padel on a tennis court. Padel courts are designed for four players and are roughly 25% smaller than the size of a tennis court.

Why is padel growing so fast?

The second-most popular game in Spain – Padel is the second-most played game in Spain, and today, it has of at least 20,000 padel courts in this country. It is well-developed and established in European countries, which only makes it attract more fans each day.

Why is there no topspin in padel?

Padel: Top Spin or No Top Spin? The Dilemma. If you are an entry-level Padel player with some Tennis playing experience, you probably know that top spin is a key technique. But is it effective enough and should you use it in Padel? Twenty years ago, if you learnt to play Padel, during your first Padel lesson you would hear: ” in Padel, we never use top spin because the ball bounces higher after hitting the back wall”.

And you still hear some old school Padel trainers preaching the old mantra: ” no top spin please” During the years, as the players and technology progressed, their techniques progressed too.
The sport has changed and thus, for modern players and Padel trainers, the old truth about top spin is not valid anymore.

Hence, the Top spin is recommended for specific situations. Below are the situations when the Top spin is recommended:

Service return: As you return your opponent’s service, you want the ball to travel fast and head towards the feet of the serving player, as soon as it crosses the net. Aggressive volley: Imagine you play a long rally and your opponents are very close to their own back-wall. If you get into a comfortable situation, where the ball is somewhat high, you should volley the ball with top spin and the ball will fly high away of reach of your opponents after bouncing on the wall. Aggressive smash: if you want the ball to fly high after bouncing on the wall, hit it with top spin. As such, the ball will likely get out of the reach of your opponents.

And yet, use the top spin with moderation, because used under the wrong circumstances you will put your opponent in a comfortable situation to start a counter attack. For info regarding Padel Coaching, feel free to Call/Whatsapp on +91 7259205546 or visit www.inpadel.in/coaching for payment & additional information. : Padel: Top Spin or No Top Spin? The Dilemma.

What is the biggest padel company in the world?

Padel United Merges With PDL Group & Becomes The Largest Padel Company In The World. – Padel United UK.

How many padel players are there in the Netherlands?

Padel in The Netherlands Since 2016 the KNLTB and the NPB have represented padel in the Netherlands. In November 2019 they announced a joint competition calendar which led to their merger in July 2020. Since then, all activities surrounding padel are covered by the KNLTB.

There are currently around 75 thousand active padel players in the Netherlands, with a doubling expected over the next 2 years. Many well-known former football players such as Ronald de Boer, Arjen Robben and Wesley Sneijder are active padel players in The Netherlands. The two best male padel players are Uriël Maarssen and Bram Meijer.

The two best female padel players are Milou Ettekoven and Tess van Dinteren. : Padel in The Netherlands

Is padel the fastest growing sport?

Padel vs Pickleball: Can the World’s Fastest-Growing Sports Overtake Tennis? Is Padel An Olympic Sport Getty Images “Have we got a serious player here?” asks Andrew Castle, the 59-year-old former No.1 British tennis player and now the BBC’s voice of Wimbledon, looking me up and down. His gaze goes down my Richie Tenenbaum polo shirt and lands on my Veja trainers, which have solid eco credentials and non-marking soles but unmistakable weekend-dad energy, and he winces.

Hmm, I guess not.” We are at the National Tennis Centre in Roehampton, west London.
But we are not here to play tennis.
Instead, we are limbering up beside a padel court, which is 20 metres long and 10 metres wide, or roughly three-quarters the size of a tennis court.
It is enclosed at the back with glass and on the sides with glass and mesh.

Padel, which was devised in 1969 in Mexico, borrows some core traits from tennis: you bash a furry ball over a net, and use the same scoring system; and some from squash: the back wall is in play, so long as the ball only bounces on the ground once. Padel, which is said to be the fastest-growing sport in Europe, is almost always played in doubles and I’ve teamed up with my coach (who introduced me to the sport all of 45 minutes ago), James Rose, a tennis lifer who now works for Game4Padel, an ambitious operation backed by Castle, Andy Murray and Liverpool FC’s Virgil van Dijk. Castle covers the base of his Wilson racquet and asks whether the logo reads, “M” or “W”. “M?” I guess. Castle shakes his head, “W, fuck off!” He elects to receive serve and, to everyone’s surprise, Rose and I hustle into a 3-0 lead. At the change of ends, Castle brushes my shoulder and mutters, “I’ve had some tough losses in my career,” perhaps reflecting on the time he went down to Mats Wilander, the No.2 seed, in five sets at Wimbledon in 1986, or defeat in the 1987 Australian Open mixed-doubles final.

Or perhaps not.
But this,” Castle confirms, “would be the most embarrassing.” Still, you don’t reach the last 32 at the 1987 US Open by just rolling over and having your tummy tickled.
Castle comes out swinging, or maybe he’s just actually trying for the first time, and starts playing lights-out padel.

He and Newman take four games in a streak to go up 4-3, then 5-4 in our one-set match. When I blaze an ungainly forehand out of the court complex, Castle snorts, “Nice cricket shot!” Truth be told, I was surprised as anyone to be receiving good-natured smack talk from Castle.

Padel had been sold to me as a social game: less energetic and nerve-shredding than tennis. This is a sport where you might find a court-side DJ, and the losing team buys the first round at the bar. But as Rose and I — OK, mainly Rose — scrabble to save four match points, it doesn’t feel like that. My glasses are steamed up, my hand is sticking to the leather handle of the fibreglass racquet and sweat pools in my socks.

The game goes into a decisive tie-break and another match point comes and goes for Castle and Newman, before Rose and I have one of our own. We make it — I’m not sure how, and frankly I can’t see much out of my glasses — to claim the set and match 7-6.

It’s not the best day of my life, but is certainly right up in the top five. The next day I catch up with Castle for a debrief. “Funnily enough, I didn’t lose that much sleep over it,” he says with a bark of laughter, when I ask about the five fluffed match points. “So you can take your self-satisfaction and stick it up your arse.” Our match has given me a glimpse into why padel is on the rise.

The familiar stress points of tennis — duffing your serve into the net, constantly crashing the ball wide or long — are largely removed from padel. The game suits children and older folk, because there’s less court to cover, and allows players of widely diverging abilities to share the same space.

It would be ludicrous for me to step on a tennis court with Castle, but padel is a leveller.
Because you tried your backside off, you were involved,” says Castle.
In tennis, would we have had such a fun game? I doubt it.” For Rose, who first saw padel when he was director of tennis coaching at La Manga Club in Spain, the sport is the perfect combination of being easy to pick up but hard to master.

“You just see people leaving the court smiling and saying, ‘When can I play again?'” says the 44-year-old. “And being a coach all my life, to have that instant reward and reaction is very fulfilling. Because I love sport, ultimately. I’m a sport guy: tennis is my main sport, and I’m now heavily focused and involved in padel.

But ultimately I just love people to get a buzz from sport.” Padel has exploded in Spain, where around five million people play, and also in Argentina, Sweden and the Netherlands. Footballers especially seem to have taken to it: Leo Messi and Zinedine Zidane have courts in their gardens; Zlatan Ibrahimović is an investor in Padel Zenter, which has five centres in Sweden and one planned for Milan this year.

There are courts in the training centres at Manchester City and Liverpool; the latter club recently posted footage of a tense, deftly skilled match between manager Jürgen Klopp and star striker Mo Salah. “Besides football,” an “addicted” Klopp has said, “it’s the best game I’ve ever played.” All of which makes the rush to invest in padel not too surprising. There are currently just over 200 courts in the UK; that number is expected to double this year, according to the Lawn Tennis Association. Some of these new facilities will be in leisure centres, such as the Better Gyms chain, which has plans for more than 20 venues.

But others will be in less expected places.
In November last year, Game4Padel dropped a pop-up court in the central atrium of the Westfield shopping centre in west London; over three days, around 250,000 people watched exhibition matches between the Murrays, Andy and Jamie, top British padel players and the likes of TV presenter Jamie Theakston, model Laura Bailey and cricketer Andrew Strauss.

Westfield has a 10-year deal with Game4Padel, and this year they plan to install three permanent courts. The business case for padel starts to look compelling. Sport England calculated that the number of tennis players in England dropped from 889,300 in 2016 to 641,800 in 2021, or a 28 per cent dip in five years.

Squash had 425,600 players in England in 2016, but only 105,600 in 2021, which, even allowing for the Covid pandemic, is a jaw-dropping haemorrhage of engagement.) “It’s just a really fun game,” Andy Murray, who invested in Game4Padel in 2019, tells Esquire,
I played recently with my brother Jamie at Westfield and we just had a laugh.

It’s still pretty competitive but, because it can be quite fast-paced, and you are all close together on the court, it makes it more sociable.” At the National Tennis Centre, I ask Andrew Castle if tennis — and squash — should be concerned about the growth of padel.

“Tennis has got a hundred-year head start, and that’s pretty powerful,” he replies. “But worrying about padel is a bit like worrying about water flowing downhill. Anybody who’s worried about whether or not padel is happening is a little behind the times. Because, by the way, it’s happening.” In the US, the same conversations are taking place about an existential threat to tennis.

But the tennis-adjacent disruptor sport over there isn’t padel, it’s pickleball. Around five million Americans are estimated to play the game, and these include George and Amal Clooney, who have a court at their home in Los Angeles. Kim and Khloe Kardashian played a match in a 2019 episode of Keeping Up with the Kardashians, and Larry David admitted enjoying a game on Curb Your Enthusiasm (his wife, Ashley Underwood, is making a documentary about the sport).

At a charity tournament last November, Emma Watson teamed up with Sugar Ray Leonard — “I had, honestly, the best day of my life,” Watson said afterwards — while in the same month, Oscar-winning actor Jamie Foxx launched a range of racquets, the Best Paddle. His first customers? Will Smith and Leonardo DiCaprio.

Pickleball and padel share some similarities, not least in their origin stories. Pickleball was born in 1965 on Bainbridge Island, near Seattle, the invention of three dads: future US congressman Joel Pritchard and businessmen Barney McCallum and Bill Bell, who came home after a game of golf and found their families climbing the walls.

Pritchard’s garden had a badminton court, but no kit, so the men and their kids started hitting a perforated plastic ball over the net with ping-pong bats. The following weekend, they lowered the net to roughly the height of a tennis net and over time they introduced custom paddles. The name of the new game, coined by Pritchard’s wife, is usually understood as a reference to “pickle boats”: a sailing term for the last boat to finish a race, and a nod to the tossed-together basics of the new sport.

Or it might be that the Pritchards had a dog called “Pickle” who liked to chase the ball — no one exactly remembers. Pickleball became popular among a small Pacific Northwest elite; one of the early acolytes, in fact, was a young Bill Gates. Padel’s origins were equally rarefied. The game was devised by a Mexican industrialist, Enrique Corcuera, who didn’t have quite enough space in the grounds of his holiday home in Acapulco for a tennis court, so squashed one in a space that had walls at both ends.

In 1974, Alfonso de Hohenlohe-Langenburg, a Spanish prince, visited Corcuera and liked the game so much that he took it home to his private club in Marbella.
The Spanish tennis great Manuel Santana was an early ambassador of padel, but like pickleball, it remained a niche hobby for decades after its invention.

That changed in the Covid pandemic, as both sports saw their ranks swell dramatically in many places during the widespread lockdowns. Part of this growth was practical: padel and pickleball tend to be played outdoors, and involve no physical contact, so didn’t receive the strictures that other sports such as football, basketball and swimming had.

Manu Martin, a Spanish padel player and coach with a strong social-media presence, found himself becoming an influencer in the Covid era: he now has 185,000 followers on Instagram. “It sounds bad, but the pandemic was good for padel in Spain, in Europe and in many countries,” says Martin. “One reason is that, once you have tried padel for one time, then you’re in love with the sport.

“And the second thing is about the business,” he goes on. “In one tennis court, you can install three padel courts. In tennis, people play one versus one, so if you’re a manager of a club, you’ll be earning money from two people. But if you have three padel courts, you have 12 people playing, paying and drinking beer in the cafeteria after the match.

This is very common, at least in Spain and the Mediterranean: after padel, you drink beer.
So as a business, it’s more interesting than tennis.
And when people put money into a new sport, that’s when it begins to grow up.” Pickleball has a crucial advantage over padel, though, in its capacity to expand as a sport: padel courts need to be purpose-built, and with the playing surface, glass and lighting, can cost up to £25,000; pickleball courts, meanwhile, can simply fit on an existing tennis court with new, taped lines.

The racquets are typically cheaper for pickleball — though not if you want one of Jamie Foxx’s — and are usually more durable than padel bats. (At the top end, consider a sleek black Prada padel racquet, which costs £1,500, and the accompanying ball case, £320.) But the fact that pickleball can so easily take over tennis courts has also led to considerable beef with the paterfamilias of racquet sports in the US.

In response to a social-media post about “The Great Tennis v Pickleball War of 2022”, the tennis legend Martina Navratilova wrote on Twitter: “I say if pickleball is that popular let them build their own courts.” Navratilova added a little smiley symbol in the hope of avoiding the wrath of five million evangelical picklers, but the tenor of the debate has been turning nasty.

Is Padel tennis the fastest growing sport in the world?

Today padel is the fastest growing sport in the world. Based on racket sales, it is estimated that 12 million people play it. In Spain, it is the second most popular sport after soccer, and in Sweden it is already played by more than 5% of the population.

Is padel an expensive sport?

4. Padel is affordable – Compared to other sports, padel is relatively affordable. You don’t need expensive equipment or a membership to a fancy club in order to play. In fact, all you need is a racket, a ball, and a court (which can often be found for free at public parks or tennis clubs).

Does Messi play padel?

In an interview for the Argentinian media Olé, the world champion talks about his passions, including of course the padel ! Zinédine Zidane, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, David Beckham, Ronaldo, Francesco Totti the list is long! Indeed, footballers are often fans of padel.

Many stars have already displayed racket in hand on social networks.
An opportunity to keep in shape while having fun with friends or even grow a business.
Both fun and accessible, this activity clearly attracts football champions.
Lionel Messi, the Paris Saint-Germain striker seems to have also been taken by the wave padel.

In interview for Argentinian media Diario Olé, the seven-time Ballon d’Or returned to his “secret” passions: ” I like it padel and I also watch tennis. I often play with Pepe Costa. I run and do the rest for him. I don’t play a lot though, I have matches every three days.». The world champion was stung by the padel when he was still playing in Catalonia alongside his faithful confidant Pepe Costa. In addition to playing a major role in the Argentine’s professional and private life, he also seems to be an exceptional partner on the track.

Is padel the fastest growing sport in the world?

“Hmm, I guess not.” We are at the National Tennis Centre in Roehampton, west London. But we are not here to play tennis. Instead, we are limbering up beside a padel court, which is 20 metres long and 10 metres wide, or roughly three-quarters the size of a tennis court. It is enclosed at the back with glass and on the sides with glass and mesh.

Or perhaps not. “But this,” Castle confirms, “would be the most embarrassing.” Still, you don’t reach the last 32 at the 1987 US Open by just rolling over and having your tummy tickled. Castle comes out swinging, or maybe he’s just actually trying for the first time, and starts playing lights-out padel.

Padel had been sold to me as a social game: less energetic and nerve-shredding than tennis. This is a sport where you might find a court-side DJ, and the losing team buys the first round at the bar. But as Rose and I — OK, mainly Rose — scrabble to save four match points, it doesn’t feel like that. My glasses are steamed up, my hand is sticking to the leather handle of the fibreglass racquet and sweat pools in my socks.

It would be ludicrous for me to step on a tennis court with Castle, but padel is a leveller. “Because you tried your backside off, you were involved,” says Castle. “In tennis, would we have had such a fun game? I doubt it.” For Rose, who first saw padel when he was director of tennis coaching at La Manga Club in Spain, the sport is the perfect combination of being easy to pick up but hard to master.

But ultimately I just love people to get a buzz from sport.” Padel has exploded in Spain, where around five million people play, and also in Argentina, Sweden and the Netherlands. Footballers especially seem to have taken to it: Leo Messi and Zinedine Zidane have courts in their gardens; Zlatan Ibrahimović is an investor in Padel Zenter, which has five centres in Sweden and one planned for Milan this year.

But others will be in less expected places.
In November last year, Game4Padel dropped a pop-up court in the central atrium of the Westfield shopping centre in west London; over three days, around 250,000 people watched exhibition matches between the Murrays, Andy and Jamie, top British padel players and the likes of TV presenter Jamie Theakston, model Laura Bailey and cricketer Andrew Strauss.

Squash had 425,600 players in England in 2016, but only 105,600 in 2021, which, even allowing for the Covid pandemic, is a jaw-dropping haemorrhage of engagement.) “It’s just a really fun game,” Andy Murray, who invested in Game4Padel in 2019, tells Esquire, “I played recently with my brother Jamie at Westfield and we just had a laugh.

Tennis has got a hundred-year head start, and that’s pretty powerful,” he replies.
But worrying about padel is a bit like worrying about water flowing downhill.
Anybody who’s worried about whether or not padel is happening is a little behind the times.
Because, by the way, it’s happening.” In the US, the same conversations are taking place about an existential threat to tennis.

At a charity tournament last November, Emma Watson teamed up with Sugar Ray Leonard — “I had, honestly, the best day of my life,” Watson said afterwards — while in the same month, Oscar-winning actor Jamie Foxx launched a range of racquets, the Best Paddle. His first customers? Will Smith and Leonardo DiCaprio.

Pritchard’s garden had a badminton court, but no kit, so the men and their kids started hitting a perforated plastic ball over the net with ping-pong bats.
The following weekend, they lowered the net to roughly the height of a tennis net and over time they introduced custom paddles.
The name of the new game, coined by Pritchard’s wife, is usually understood as a reference to “pickle boats”: a sailing term for the last boat to finish a race, and a nod to the tossed-together basics of the new sport.

In 1974, Alfonso de Hohenlohe-Langenburg, a Spanish prince, visited Corcuera and liked the game so much that he took it home to his private club in Marbella.
The Spanish tennis great Manuel Santana was an early ambassador of padel, but like pickleball, it remained a niche hobby for decades after its invention.

Manu Martin, a Spanish padel player and coach with a strong social-media presence, found himself becoming an influencer in the Covid era: he now has 185,000 followers on Instagram. “It sounds bad, but the pandemic was good for padel in Spain, in Europe and in many countries,” says Martin. “One reason is that, once you have tried padel for one time, then you’re in love with the sport.

This is very common, at least in Spain and the Mediterranean: after padel, you drink beer. So as a business, it’s more interesting than tennis. And when people put money into a new sport, that’s when it begins to grow up.” Pickleball has a crucial advantage over padel, though, in its capacity to expand as a sport: padel courts need to be purpose-built, and with the playing surface, glass and lighting, can cost up to £25,000; pickleball courts, meanwhile, can simply fit on an existing tennis court with new, taped lines.

In response to a social-media post about “The Great Tennis v Pickleball War of 2022”, the tennis legend Martina Navratilova wrote on Twitter: “I say if pickleball is that popular let them build their own courts.” Navratilova added a little smiley symbol in the hope of avoiding the wrath of five million evangelical picklers, but the tenor of the debate has been turning nasty.

But, right now, these complaints — some of which could also be levelled at padel — are being drowned out by the acolytes.
There is special dismay that the Tennis Channel in the US has started showing professional pickleball matches, including — sacrilegiously — on the day that Roger Federer announced his retirement from tennis.

To this end, when I contact Pickleball England to ask if they can fix me up with a game, I’m quickly paired with 27-year-old Louis Laville, who happens to be the No.1 player in all of Europe.
We meet at the Roehampton Club, a private members’ sports club in London that is, as it happens, just round a leafy corner from the National Tennis Centre, where Laville works as the golf and games manager until pickleball can start paying the bills.

Today, he has arranged a doubles match with two of his colleagues at the Roehampton Club: Dan Lott, the racquets director, and Ollie Sunda, who works in events. The court is half an indoor tennis court that Laville spends 10 minutes marking out with electrical tape. Pickleball, you quickly learn, is all about the “dink”.

Of course, mis-hit your dink and you will dump the ball into the net or dish up a straightforward smash.
In padel, the dink would not be a good tactic, because players can lurch as close to the net as they want; instead, a perfectly executed lob that lands where the court meets the glass is pretty well unreturnable.) For me, pickleball felt closer to playing a traditional game of tennis than padel did.

The rules take a bit of getting used to: only the serving team can score a point and the game is played to 11; the victorious pair must win by a clear two points.
But in the second set, my dink game goes awry and I offer up too many easy smashes to Lott and Sunda.
The match ends one set apiece.
Afterwards, we have a debrief on where pickle-ball and padel are heading.

It’s good that you’ve got two sports that are supplementing tennis because in recent years tennis has started struggling a little bit,” says Laville. “I don’t want to say it’s a declining sport, but the reason padel and pickle are growing so popular is because people are con-verting from it.” And pickleball is gaining traction in the UK: it is now offered at 45 David Lloyd Clubs, mostly on repurposed badminton courts.

The threat to tennis and squash is obvious, but are padel and pickleball also competing against each other? Are they locked in a winner-takes-all duel? Laville doesn’t think so. “You’ll see both really grow in the next few years,” he says. “I’m biased, but I think pickleball may, long-term, do better, just because it’s much easier to get started, and you don’t need a purpose-built court.” What might be decisive, in the next decade, is whether either of these upstart sports receives the Olympic nod.

Because that means there would be state funding in China, perhaps — and I was going to say Russia, but we won’t even mention them sonofabitches.” Will we one day see padel’s Roger Federer? The Serena of pickleball? Professional padel matches have already been screened on Sky and BT Sport in the UK.

“The world has only seen the tip of the iceberg of what the sport of padel can achieve on the global stage,” said Al-Khelaifi, who briefly had a tennis career, reaching a top ranking of 1,040 in 1993. For now, tennis is keeping an eye on its precocious younger siblings. At the moment, it’s still strong enough to bully them if the fight becomes physical, but padel and pickleball are growing up fast.