History of Padel

Did you know that padel was originally invented in Mexico? Padel began as a game for Mexican elite players, but it became popular in Latin American countries so fast.

Padel is a relatively recent sport that emerged a bit by chance due to curious circumstances. Mexican Enrique Corcuera was a great lover of fronton, but his court in the beach resort of Acapulco was hardly ideal: plants invaded the area and balls would fall in the neighbor’s yard.

Therefore, Corcuera built walls around the courtyard, which he later decided to include as part of the game. His goal was to develop a game to share his passion with his family. Thus began a sport that was called racket paddle, which in the beginning was only played by the Mexican elite, but soon began to become popular in other Latin American countries.

After a few years, padel made the leap to the Old Continent and its popularity grew enormously in southern Europe when arrived in 1975 from a Corcuera’s friend who built 2 courts in Marbella. Since the first courts in Spain, padel took nearly 25 years to be extended all over the Spanish geography. When Spanish king Juan Carlos de Borbón and ex-Wimbledon champion Manolo Santana started spreading this game, its popularity increased very quickly. Finally in the early 2000s there were more than 500 Padel clubs and more than 1000 Clubs in 2005.

The World Padel Tour Foundation

The International Padel Federation was founded in 1991. Actually, the first World Championships were organized in Seville in 1992, with teams from 11 countries participating. After a few years, when this championship was celebrated every two years, The World Padel Tour was created in 2012. It currently has more than 80 couples playing at the highest level. For those who don’t know, it is the biggest professional padel championship in the world. Every year, between 15 and 20 tournaments are played as part of the WPT, besides a final master which puts together the best couples of the ranking.

Only the best 8 couples can join the final master of WPT. This championship includes male and female events. Some of the most popular players of the World Padel Tour are Fernando Belasteguín, Alejandro Galán, Paquito Navarro, Sanyo Gutiérrez, Gemma Triay or Paula Josemaría.