With padel tennis being one of the fastest-growing sports, let’s take a step back and learn more about it.
You heard it right. Padel is one of world’s fastest-growing sports.
More than 25 million players across over 110 countries enjoy padel. In fact, you’ll be shocked to know that the term “Padel” is being searched more than 968,000 times each year.
That’s huge.
And taking into consideration the ever-increasing interest and buzz revolving around the sport, this number has been predicted to skyrocket in the next few years.
If you are already in love with the sport, chances are that you may want to know more about it. Your mind may be flooded with questions how did Padel rise to where it is today or how is it the fastest-growing sport in the world?
Allow us to help you step into the realm of padel.
Throughout this blog post, we’ll help you understand what triggered the rise of padel and why it’s the fastest-growing sport in the world today.
We’re so excited to share this information with you.
But before we dive in, if you’d like to consume more information about padel, we’d strongly advise you to read a few of our recent blog posts like:
- What is Padel & Why is it so Popular?
- Paddleball vs Pickleball vs Padel – What You Need to Know?
- 5 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About Padel Sport
If you already know a bit about the sport or whether you are a beginner, intermediate or advanced player looking forward to gaining more information, let’s dive in straight away.
The Rise of Padel Tennis
Did you know that padel was first invented in Mexico out of nothing? In fact, it was invented mistakenly by a Mexican businessman named “Enrique Corcuera” – who didn’t even know he was about to invent today’s fastest-growing sport.
A shoutout to him!
Back in 1969, Enrique Corcuera set up the world’s first-ever padel tennis court by simply building walls around his holiday home garden based in Acapulco. He didn’t have enough space on his property – so he just made a smaller court. The reason why he built a wall around this court is – he wanted to avoid his tennis ball bouncing onto the neighbor’s garden again and again while playing tennis.
And this simple caution led to the invention of one of the most popular sports of the 21st century. Initially, he referred to the game as “Padel Corcuera.” But soon – Prince Alfonso, a friend of the Mexican businessman introduced the sport in Spain. And then, it was introduced in Argentina.
The first-ever formal padel tournament took place in 1991 in Spain – and since then the popularity of the sport has never gone down.
Padel has been unstoppable.
Today:
- There exist more than six million padel players in Spain.
- There are more than 20,000 padel courts in Spain.
- Padel is Spain’s second most popular sport – with the first one being football.
- There are more than 5,300 padel courts in Italy.
- There are more than 5,000 padel courts in Argentina.
- There exist more than two million padel players in Argentina.
- Padel is a trending sport in the United Kingdom, United States, Sweden and Finland.
- More than 500,000 people play padel in Sweden.
- Padel is exponentially growing in Worldwide.
- Pro Padel League is the NHL of Padel in the USA.
So, how exactly did it become so popular?
Why is Padel Growing in Popularity?
Padel has been recognized as one of the safest sports in the world. Back when the Covid-19 pandemic hit the world, the Italy government was looking for ways to halt the pandemic, including the name of sports which can be allowed to practice and which can’t.
They found out that Padel is extremely safe – and is already a fast-paced skyrocketing sport in Spain.
And as Italians tried it, they fell in love. Since then, the popularity of the sport has grown exponentially.
Since the Covid-19 pandemic:
- The number of padel courts has 5x – stands at more than 5,000.
- The number of padel clubs and schools have 3x.
- Padel has been predicted to become the second most popular and practiced sport in Italy – with the first one being football.
As stated by Salvatore Palumbo, a former under 18 tennis champion, “There’s no sport in Italy that has observed such tremendous amount of success. In Italy, we observed one of the strictest lockdowns. Back then, padel is what provided relief and gave people a source of entertainment.”
In the initial stages of the Covid-19 pandemic, sports like football, and basketball were banned. Gyms and swimming pools were shut down. As a result, there were just a few options left for people – tennis and padel were two of those.
Tennis requires too much practice and lengthy technical preparation. Whereas, padel is easy to learn and fun. So, we witnessed people switching to padel – which is one of the reasons behind its immense popularity.
And to date, people consider padel to not only be safe but also a fun sport – which is why it’s growing in popularity exponentially.
Conclusion
Love playing padel? We do too. In fact, we love it so much that we roll out high-quality guides around padel on a regular basis. We’d strongly advise you to give them a read – as they’ll help you dive deeper into the realm of padel.
Padel is immensely growing in popularity. And it’ll continue to grow and soon, we’ll witness it to be played in Olympics as soon as it fits the criteria.
We’d love to have your thoughts on this as well.
Feel free to reach out to us.
Also, we build the highest-quality, premium, and most reliable value-for-money rackets for all types of players – whether you’re just getting started or playing the sport all day.
