A brief history of padel
Padel was founded in Acapulco, Mexico in 1969. Seor Enrique Corcuera, founder of padel, learned how to have fun. After getting tired of tennis and squash alone, he found a way to combine the best features of squash and tennis. In his opinion, padel is more fun, more social and easier to learn than any other racquet sport. He simply mixes the best ingredients to make padel cocktails.
first ever cricket ground
Enrique Corcuera created the first padel course in Acapulco, Mexico in 1969. Over time, the sport of padel has grown in popularity and is now a worldwide sport. The backyard and larger gardens of Mr. Cocuela’s lovely villa are not suitable for a tennis court. Still, the urge and desire to build a racquetball field remained. He built a miniature tennis court before realizing the court was being expanded on the garden. Enrique had to build a fence around the pitch to limit its growth. He decided to build a concrete wall around the courtroom.
In 1969, Mr. Enrique Corcuera of Acapulco, Mexico built the first padel course in his backyard.
It took years for the padel court to become something of a modern version, with four-meter-high metal doors and glass on all sides. The floor of the old padel courts was much more slippery than it is now, because there was no grass or artificial playing fields.
Unfortunately, the founder of padel, Enrique Corcuera, has passed away, making it impossible to provide the full history of his invention to a wider audience. His wife and heirs decided to sell the house while he was gone, which they did successfully. The new owner’s family decided to dismantle the padel court and build a swimming pool in the same place in the garden. Of course, it is very unfortunate that the real original padel court no longer exists.
Padel tennis and platform tennis are sometimes confused because, at first glance, they may be the same sport. It’s actually a very different game, and neither its popularity nor its growth took off. A platform tennis court is easy to spot because it has extra space beyond the boundary line and the distance between the boundary line and the wall is about 1.5 meters. Also, rackets are not as advanced as padel bats. The 10 x 20 meter cricket pitch does not take up much extra space in the surrounding area. Play is played on the entire pitch, including areas outside the boundaries, as you would see in a championship game.
Mexican paddle tennis
Padel originated in Mexico and grew relatively slowly in its early years. We’ve seen a slight increase in player numbers in recent years. There are currently 555 padel courses in Mexico spread over 181 locations. Only a few true padel clubs have more than 6 pitches, and most of these locations have only 2 padel pitches.
We can see that the popularity of padel in Mexico is on the rise, which is a good sign for the expansion of this wonderful sport to the entire American continent. We see an opportunity to boost its growth by introducing more professional padel clubs with larger units in Mexico.
playing padel in spain
The origins of padel can be traced back to the early 1970s, when the owners of the famous Marbella club brought the sport to Spain. In the early 1980s, padel tennis and other sports and recreational activities were the focus of some clubs in Marbella. However, this was not enough for them, so they decided to hold an international tournament called the “World Cup”, which was held in Madrid in 1992. These clubs began organizing tournaments for men only. Argentina beat Spain 3-0 to win the gold medal. Great Britain finished fourth, with Uruguay taking bronze.
As a result of this event, many people started playing paddle tennis enthusiastically, as they were eager to see if they could beat the top players out there. Having said that, we can reasonably assume that most people are aware of the popularity of padel tennis in Spain today and its continued growth. At present, Spain has opened more and more professionally run padel clubs, and the stadium capacity is also higher. It is encouraging that the sport of padel is still growing steadily in the most developed countries of the padel world.
Padel became a professional sport in the 1990s
Since the early 1990s, the sport of padel has grown in popularity, especially among ex-tennis players and those who never quite found themselves in the sport. Now, players and coaches alike are being questioned. Tennis is a more challenging sport than padel and it takes many years to achieve the same level of enjoyment after a few matches. As a result, padel has become a more attractive sport for children to learn than tennis, badminton, football or ice hockey. It also enables them to develop their careers more quickly.
Padel has a special nature and has so far been mainly competitively played in Spain and Argentina. It is very rare to have a professional team from another country. The top athletes are usually from Argentina or Spain, with a few exceptions over the years being Brazilian athletes.
The World Padel Tour (WPT) is considered a series of competitions involving all the top players in the world. Since it was first held in 2013, the World Padel Tour has made a significant contribution to the development of the sport around the world. Since 2021, more countries have joined the tour, but the tour is still mainly played in Spain. Sweden was one of the first countries to host WPT events and the Ledap Group organizes the event. Damm Brewery, which is mainly controlled by Spanish investors, owns the World Padel Tour and everyone probably sees them as the main sponsor of the WPT Championships.
For professional padel players, Premier Padel is the newest and most prestigious competition circuit. What sets them apart from the WPT is that they offer amateurs the chance to try their luck and young, eager players to become padel’s biggest stars one day. We believe this choice is wise in order to reach a wider audience and target audience of players. Investors from Qatar also control Paris Saint-Germain (PSG), the owners of the Premier Padel Tour, known as Qatar Sports Investments (QSI). Because the stakes are higher in Super Padel than in the World Padel Tour, it has won the popularity and respect of experts.
Another professionally run private padel tour is the APT Padel Tour. The APT has been around for over a decade, but as the World Padel Tour has grown in popularity, it has lost its appeal as the market is still relatively small. The number of professional players at that time was only 10% of what it is now. In 2020, the APT was relaunched under the control of Monaco businessman Fabrice Pastor.
Globalization and Expansion
Padel, a racket sport similar to squash, badminton and tennis, is rapidly gaining popularity around the world. The number of players in these three additional racquet sports is dwindling. The sport of padel will continue to grow over the next decade with over 25 million active players worldwide. More than 100 countries are already participating in padel competitions, and the number will be even higher.
The next popular sport is padel, which is expanding rapidly. Padel was created by Enrique Corcuera in Acapulco, Mexico, and introduced to Spain in the early 1970s. Welcome to the padel community where you may meet new friends and have a lot of fun.
We recommend that you also read What Is Paddle Tennis; this is a blog we wrote to provide a short read on the subject and provide more information.
hello! My name is James Carter (I play against Jimbob) and I am a passionate paddle tennis player. Welcome to my website, Padel Tennis Center.
My love for paddle tennis started in 2015 when I played tennis for the first time in Murcia, Spain. Since then, I’ve been hooked on this exciting sport and committed to learning as much as possible about it.
Through my website my aim is to share my paddle tennis knowledge and experience with other enthusiasts. Whether you are an experienced player or a novice, I hope to provide useful information, tips and tricks to help you improve your game and fully enjoy this amazing sport.
