Padel sport - a marriage between tennis and squash

It’s a sport that carries the moniker of ‘tennis with walls and squash under the sun’. That’s Padel - one of the fastest growing racquet sports. It found its footing in India in 2016 and since then, it has made a steady headway into the lives of the people.

According to the Indian Padel Federation, there are 1800 registered players in Bengaluru alone who take part in various competitions and over 3200 who play the sport recreationally. This is with just 2 operational courts.

“It’s a very addictive sport, especially for young kids and older people because the rallies don’t end quickly like it does in tennis,” said DB Santosh, an ITF and USPTR certified tennis coach.

Santosh has switched his focus to padel and is currently coaching at Bulldog Padel which hosted the recently concluded Rajyotsava Padel Cup, the first event since the lockdown. So what is padel?

It’s played in doubles format in courts similar, but smaller, to a tennis court confined by walls of glass behind the service lines and metal mesh on the sides. The scoring system is similar to tennis while walls are part of the game like in squash.

“The sport is very popular in the US, UK and South America. In Asia, Japan and China are big players,” said Sneha Abraham, president of the Indian Padel Federation (IPF).

IPF is affiliated to international federation in Switzerland and is in the process of getting recognition from the Sports Ministry.

“We have already registered with the Sports Ministry but they require a certain number of years of existence and we are done with more than 80 percent of that time, so hopefully we should be able to announce in 2021,” said Sneha.

“We also took an India team to Japan for the Asia Cup in March 2019.”

Internationally too, padel is gaining momentum.

“Padel has reached observer status with the Olympic Committee and was set to have a showcase at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. This will now happen in 2021,” Sneha remarked. Getting into the Olympics is the pinnacle for any sport, and it seems like padel is well on its way and here to stay.