From the beaches of Acapulco to world event tournaments, Padel is fast becoming one of the most electrifying sports to witness… and play in recent years.
What started out as a businessman’s need to play tennis but without enough space for a full court, Padel is enjoying its reputation as a sport that everyone can play – and that athletes love to play.
In 1969, businessman Enrique Corcuera wanted to play tennis but his beach resort home didn’t have enough space to accommodate a full court. His solution was to create a similar sport, using smaller wooden rackets – like those you’d find on the beaches for beach padel – and build smaller courts. He created the first court that measured 10 by 20 metres in size and surrounded the court by 3-4 metre high walls.
Like tennis, he placed a net in the middle, dividing the padel court into two. It was innovation through necessity that Padel was born, much the way that Tennis had found a way to innovate the original sport that is far removed from the game we see today.
Padel was initially for the wealthy of Mexico with Corcuera playing with his friends and fellow businessman at his home. It was Enrique’s Spanish friend, Alfonso de Hohenlohe who turned it into a global sport when he fell in love with the game whilst playing it at Enrique’s home.
In 1974, Alfonso decided to bring this new sport to Marbella on Spain’s Costa del Sol where he purposely built the country’s first two padel courts. Its popularity would be reserved for some time with the elite such as ex-Wimbledon Champion Manolo Santana and even the King Juan Carlos. However it would be these two figures who would go on to promote the sport with their immense reach and public personas that would go on to turn this little sport that had been set up just a few years beforehand into a national game.
With the game starting to explode in Argentina, Padel was gaining popularity with people, athletes and royalty alike. Padel courts were being established around the country with Padel Clubs becoming more and more popular.
Only one year after Alfonso de Hohenlohe brought it to Spain, it would be a friend of his this time that would bring the game to Argentina. Argentine millionaire Julio Menditengui would make Padel one of the most popular sports in the country, making it an actual national sport with more than 10,000 courts and 2 million players.
In Spain, Padel continued to gain popularity and today, it boasts over 20,000 padel courts, with an estimated six million active players. It makes Padel the second most popular sport in the country overtaking Basketball and Cycling who held that position for decades.
Spain and Argentina remain the two most popular countries for Padel and top the list with the most official tournaments and international competitions.
You’d think that with the amount of players and popularity that Padel would have been a professional sport by the 80s came around. Well, not quite. Padel had to wait a little longer.
Padel became a professional sport in 1991 when the International Paddle Federation and shortly after, in 1992, the first world championships were held in the dual cities of Madrid and Seville.
The Sports Council of Spain recognised paddle as a sport in 1993 and subsequently changed its spelling to Padel for pronunciation purposes in the Spanish language.
It would take another decade for the first ever professional world tour. In 2005, the Padel Pro Tour was created and in 2013 it was renamed as the World Padel Tour – a circuit that still runs today with events held across the world.
Without a shadow of doubt, the game of Padel would find a home in the UK – it’s just taken a longer time than it should. We are a nation of racket sports lovers after all, so when in 1992 the British Paddle Association was formed, it was done by a group of passionate British expats seeking to compete in the 1992 World Paddle Championships.
Move forward nearly three decades and the LTA announced it would integrate British Padel into the organisation’s day-to-day operations.
Unlike Spain, Argentina or Mexico, the UK has taken its time to come round to the sport and as of November 2020, there were 6000 registered players of the sport with over 80 courts scattered around the country.
Without a shadow of doubt, the game of Padel would find a home in the UK – it’s just taken a longer time than it should. We are a nation of racket sports lovers after all, so when in 1992 the British Paddle Association was formed, it was done by a group of passionate British expats seeking to compete in the 1992 World Paddle Championships.
Move forward nearly three decades and the LTA announced it would integrate British Padel into the organisation’s day-to-day operations.
Unlike Spain, Argentina or Mexico, the UK has taken its time to come round to the sport and as of November 2020, there were 6000 registered players of the sport with over 80 courts scattered around the country.
The Padel Club in Wilmslow is the latest to bring this exciting sport to the UK and open up Cheshire and Greater Manchester to all of the fun and laughter this game can bring.
The Padel Club in Wilmslow is the latest to bring this exciting sport to the UK and open up Cheshire and Greater Manchester to all of the fun and laughter this game can bring.
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