Padel development exceeds all limits
We are lucky to live in a time where we can enjoy watching padel go from being a new sport to the fastest growing sport in history. However, have you ever wondered how this incredible sport began? Who is the creator of our new passion, the person we are grateful for?
In this article, we share 7 interesting facts you may not have known about the origins of padel.
Fakts #1
Padel was not created in Spain or Argentina, but in Mexico
It all started in 1962 in Puerto de Acapulco, Mexico, when wealthy businessman Enrique Corcuera created the first padel court.
He loved tennis, but couldn’t afford to build a tennis court due to lack of space. So he built a smaller version: a 20x10m court.
Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately), Corcuera was not happy with the ball regularly disappearing into the trees or into the neighbor’s house. He and his friends spent a lot of time trying to retrieve the padel ball, which turned the game into an irritating adventure.
Solution: build a 3-meter-high wall to enclose the area.
It was the first padel court in history.
Fakts #2
Marbella Club Hotel – the first padel courts with a fence on the side
Enrique’s Spanish friend Alfonso von Hohenlohe-Langenburg tried this new invention at Enrique’s home and immediately fell in love with it.
Immediately after that, he decided to create the first two padel courts at a tennis club in Marbella, Spain, in 1970. This was the first European padel club and the first to have a fence on the sides instead of walls.
Meanwhile, in 1975, Julio Menditegui, an Argentine member of the Alfonso Tennis Club in Marbella, felt the same passion and decided to bring the sport to Argentina.
Fakts #3
Pirmās padel raketes tika izgatavotas no koka
Wooden padel rackets were used back then because the court in Corcuera was so small that players didn’t need much strength to hit the ball.
The players found it fun and interesting to see the ball bounce back after hitting the wall, so they continued the game, which became the beginning of this sport.
Fakts #4
The first padel rulebook was written by a former Miss Argentina
The first rulebook was compiled by Enrique’s wife Viviana, a former Miss Argentina, who gave it to her husband as a birthday present.
Fakts #5
Spain waited three World Cup editions to become world champions
After the creation of the International Padel Federation (FIP) in 1991, the first world championship was held in Madrid in 1992. Argentina won the title, defeating Spain in the final.
Argentina also won the next two championships (Mendoza 1994 and Madrid 1996) before losing in the 1998 championship in Mar del Plata, Argentina, where Spain won its first title.
Fakts #6
The oldest padel court in history is now a swimming pool
Enrique Corcuera passed away in 1999 and his wife later sold the house. The new owners decided to demolish the historic padel court to build a swimming pool in its place, meaning that the very first padel court no longer exists.
However, many investors have built courts around the world, and padel has rapidly spread around the world.
Fakts #7
World Padel Tour nav pirmais pasaules mēroga turnīru cikls vēsturē
The Padel Pro Tour, created in 2005, was actually the first cycle of professional tournaments.
It was created by a group of professional padel tournament organizers, in collaboration with the Asociación de Jugadores Profesionales de Pádel (AJPP) and the Asociación Femenina Española de Pádel (AFEP).
The World Padel Tour (WPT) was created in 2013 after an agreement with most of the world’s Top 100 players at the time, to become the leading tournament series for professional padel players.
The International Padel Federation (FIP) recognized the WPT ranking as the official ranking of padel players worldwide.
