Tennis has been all the rage online within the past month after ther film Challengers was released featuring Zendaya, Mike Faist, and Josh O’Connor. The trio depicts the lives of tennis pros and has everyone scrambling online to find tennis-core outfits. But there’s another sport coming to overshadow tennis: Padel.
It’s to tennis, but not quite there. Since 1969, padel has existed in the realms of smaller communities and sports lovers but has come to be increasingly popular in the U.S., with padel clubs slowly beginning to pop up in your favorite cities, including New York. The combination of accessibility, social appeal, physical benefits, dynamic gameplay, growing availability, and entertainment value has contributed to padel’s increasing popularity worldwide.
L’OFFICIEL has the full rundown on what padel is, the history of padel, and the growing community of padel players everywhere.
What is padel?
Padel is a racket sport that blends aspects of both tennis and squash, commonly played in doubles on a confined court.
One of the key distinctions between tennis and padel lies in the equipment. Padel rackets differ from tennis rackets in that they are solid and crafted from composite materials. Although the balls used resemble standard tennis balls, they are designed with lower pressure.
The padel court occupies a third of the space of a tennis court and is surrounded by walls and a wire mesh fence, with a net dividing it into two halves. Despite their unique features, both tennis and padel share a common scoring system.
In padel, players hit with an underhand serve, directed diagonally to the opponent’s service box. Following the serve, the game unfolds into a rally, with teams taking turns to make shots. A factor that people seem to enjoy about padel is the ability to play the ball of the walls.
The History of Padel
Padel began in 1969 when Enrique Corcuera decided to innovate by incorporating elements of platform tennis into his squash court at his residence in Acapulco, Mexico. The result was what he termed “Paddle Corcuera,” marking him as the inventor of padel.
Enrique’s friend, Alfonso of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, was introduced to this new sport at Enrique’s home and immediately became enamored with it. In 1974, Alfonso established the first two padel courts at a tennis club in Marbella, Spain. However, he made several modifications to Enrique’s original design to enhance competitiveness, marking the beginning of a series of iterations that would shape the sport over the next two decades in Spain.
What is the state of padel today?
Since 2010, padel has experienced exponential growth worldwide, earning recognition as one of the fastest-growing sports globally. The past decade has witnessed an extraordinary surge in its popularity, with 10,000 new padel courts constructed and 3,000 new clubs opening their doors.
Today, padel has emerged as a prominent sport in countries like Spain, Italy, Sweden, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Portugal. Moreover, its popularity is swiftly extending to regions such as the Middle East.
In New York, Padel Haus is the newest club to be a part of. They label themselves as the first and only padel club in NYC. They currently have three locations with one in Williamsburg, Domino Park, and Dumbo. Two new locations are set to open in Greenpoint and Nashville.
