Padel news: From one couple’s pastime to global sensation – A look at the history and future of padel

What started out as a couple’s pastime activity in the luxurious Las Brisas suburb of Acapulco, Mexico, has become a global sensation with over 30 million players worldwide.

Here, Sports News Blitz writer Vanely Barumire digs into the exciting world of padel.

Humble origins

In 1969, while enjoying their new holiday home, model Viviana and her husband, Enrique Corcuera, began throwing a ball at a wall, with the couple quickly falling in love with the game.

Having been given an ultimatum by his wife – ‘No padel, no Viviana’ – Enrique built a concrete court measuring 20 metres long and 10 metres wide.

He asked the builders to close the sides with wire fences to stop the balls from disappearing out of the court, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Now, to be more accurate, the roots of the sport actually go back further than the late 1960s.

Passengers on British cruises in the 19th century played a similar game with tennis rackets, and ‘platform tennis’ was popular in the 1910s in cities across the United States such as Washington and New York.

But it wasn’t until the Corcueras set up the first organised court in Acapulco that the game started to formulate its own rules and regulations.

Enrique named it Paddle Corcuera, a game that would go on to attract millions of global players.

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Spanish takeover

Padel has since become a viral sensation.

Many countries are starting to pick up on the trend and building padel courts in local communities, but the sport has established a particular foothold in Spain.

While visiting his friend, Enrique, in Mexico in 1974, Spanish entrepreneur Alfonso de Hohenlohe loved playing the sport so much that he decided to import it to Spain’s Costa del Sol.

He built the country’s first two padel courts and introduced the sport to the exclusive Marbella Club.

The sport gained popularity very quickly, especially with athletes such as four-time Grand Slam winner Manuel Santana.

Today, padel is firmly part of Spain’s sporting identity.

With over 20,000 padel courts and an estimated six million active players, the sport is the country’s second-most popular behind football.

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Future plans

More and more investment is now being poured into padel, with plans for new courts being introduced seemingly every other week.

Derby city centre is the latest to gear up for a makeover with plans for padel courts and a skatepark to be built on the former Eagle Market site.

The proposed 55,000 sq ft padel venue would make it one of the largest indoor padel centres in the UK.

Even former athletes from other sports are noticing the rise of the game.

Alongside his business partner, retired Ireland goalkeeper Shay Given is planning to build a new padel centre called Arena Padel in Goffs, Ireland, due to open next year.

That will be just the latest investment in a fast-growing sport, and it is unlikely that the craze and hype around padel will die out anytime soon.

MORE FROM VANELY BARUMIRE: Padel explainer: How to play the sport and rules of the court