The History of Padel

From Mexico to Britain via Argentina and Spain.

The beginnings of Padel

Enrique Corcuera, a Mexican businessman built the first Padel court at his holiday home in Acapulco in 1969 – but the sport has evolved from previously played sports.

He called the sport Paddle Corcuera – and the rest is history.

A growing international sport

The German playboy Prince, Alfonso de Hohenlohe, a friend of Enrique’s, was the main driving force behind Padel as international sport.

While visiting Mexico in 1974, Hohenlohe enjoyed this new game so much that he decided to import it to Spain’s Costa del Sol, where he built the country’s first two Padel courts at the Marbella Club. The very hotel Alfonso founded that made Marbella the holiday destination that it is today.

The introduction of the courts marked the beginning of the game’s popularity among the members of this exclusive club, including the tennis player Manolo Santana, who won four Grand Slam titles.

Shortly after, tournaments were organised along the Costa del Sol as more and more clubs built their own courts.

In 1975 an Argentine millionaire, Julio Menditenguia, discovered padel in Marbella and decided to take the sport to his country – where it became hugely popular.

Today there are more than two million officially licensed padel players in Argentina, a country that boasts more than 10,000 padel courts.

Padel is also wildly popular in Spain today as well. The country has more than 20,000 padel courts, with an estimated six million active players. Behind football, it’s the country’s second-most-popular sport.

Padel as a professional sport?

In 1991 the International Paddle Federation was formed and in 1992 the first world championships were held in the cities of Madrid and Sevilla.

In 1993, the Sports Council of Spain recognised paddle as a sport, and changed its spelling to padel for pronunciation purposes in the Spanish language.

In 2005 the first professional world tour, Padel Pro Tour, was created. In 2013 this was renamed as the World Padel Tour (WPT) – a circuit that still runs today with events held across the globe.

When did Padel arrive in Britain?

 In 1992 the British Paddle Association was formed by a group of passionate British expats seeking to compete in the 1992 World Padel Championships.

Since then the sport has steadily grown throughout Britain.

In 2019 the LTA announced it will integrate British Padel into the organisation’s day-to-day operations.

As of November 2020 there are around 6,000 active padel players across the UK. There are also currently 82 padel courts in Britain at 45 clubs – a number that is set to grow substantially over the coming years.

In November 2020 the LTA was confirmed as the national governing body for Padel and as part of its Padel Development Plan it is looking to have 400 padel courts in place across the United Kingdom by 2023.