Padel – As Serious As Tennis But More Fun?

Matti Fun

Padel as sport is fast growing, high energetic and adrenalin generation team sports developed several decades ago but only now gaining some serious attention and popularity. It’s fun, fast-paced and very social racquet sports, similar to tennis: as serious, but perhaps more fun…? 😉

Just some days ago I decided to participate in a padel tournament in Spain, Costa del Sol, in a local Tennis and Padel club called Los Pacos Racket Club where mainly 4th series players challenged themselves against others. The event took place during the October’s Halloween party and included many people dressing up with Halloween style: blood in their skin, costumes, knifes, scarves, etc.  Absolutely fantastic! 🙂

Here is a one close shot of a junior player reaching the ball back of the court. You can see the walls and fences behind and on the side.

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As usual, let’s go into some details and facts regarding Padel sports – What is Padel?

  • Padel is typically played in doubles on a court third of the size of a tennis court: 10×20 meters. Scoring is the same as in tennis and balls are similar but a bit slower (less pressure). The main differences are in the court that has walls in the back and back-sides and balls can be played off them in a similar war as in the game of squash; and another main difference is that racquets are solid and stringless.
  • The sport was invented in 1969 in Mexico (Acapulco) by Mr. Enrique Corcuera.
  • The padel is currently popular in Latin American countries, such as Mexico, Argentina, Brazil as well as in Spain in Europe. However, it is gaining very much popularity and spreading fast especially in Europe: Netherlands, France, Germany, UK, all the way to North in Finland.
  • The professional association is called Federacion Internation de Padel (FIP) and the world professionals compete mostly in the World Padel Pro Tour (PPT) created in 2005.
  • The highest ranking top Padel players in the world are currently: Fernando Belasteguin (ARG), Pablo Lima (BRA) and Francisco Navarro Compan (ES). See the official and latest ranking here.

Here is another picture of myself, preparing for the hit..

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You can find more information regarding the Padel Sports from Wikipedia or check some nice videos on YouTube.