From Mexico to Britain via Argentina and Spain – the evolution of padel explained.
What is padel sport?
Padel's an innovative form of tennis that’s fun, easy to learn and extremely sociable.
Played as doubles on an enclosed court about a third the size of a tennis court, groups of mixed ages and abilities can play together.
Padel is fast-paced and is often described as a mix between tennis and squash. Scoring is the same as tennis, but is played with different rackets and with lower pressure balls.
Who invented padel?
Mexican businessman Enrique Corcuera set up the first-ever padel court at his holiday home in Acapulco in 1969 – but the roots of the sport go back further than that.
During the 19th century, passengers on British cruise ships played a similar game with tennis rackets and in the 1910s ‘platform tennis’ became popular in Washington and New York, with paddles replacing traditional tennis rackets.
Over the next decade, changes were made to the courts, adding wooden floors and high surrounding fences to avoid losing the ball in the winter snow.
But it wasn’t until the 1960s when Mexican Enrique Corcuera set up the first recognised court on land he owned in Acapulco. The main difference being that he surrounded his court with walls and a metallic fence of up to four metres on all sides, designed to prevent the ball from escaping onto his neighbour’s land.
