Why Planet Padel?
We met in the Bakers Arms and bonded over our various entrepreneurial activities as well as our recently discovered love of padel tennis, soon we were joined on the court by our mates, children and wives, who all became hopelessly addicted to padel.
It was after a game, while we were moaning about how expensive padel kit is to rent & buy, that we decided to do something about it. Now our goal is to provide high-quality affordable padel kit to the UK’s rapidly growing band of padel players.
Hugo Hardman & Jack Martin
What is Padel?
Padel is a revolutionary form of tennis that’s epically 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 it’s played with different rackets and lower pressure balls.
Who invented Padel?
Mexican entrepreneur Enrique Corcuera set up the first ever padel court at his holiday home in Acapulco, Mexico, in 1969. Enrique surrounded his court with walls and a metal fence four metres high, to prevent the ball from escaping onto his neighbour’s land. He called the sport Paddle Corcuera – and the revolution had begun.
Corcuera’s padel court became a meeting point for prominent figures such as Plácido Domingo, Prince Hohenlohe, Frank Sinatra and Henry Kissinger. Over time, padel expanded thanks to the fascination it generated among Corcuera’s guests.
The Spanish Conquest
Enrique Corcuera’s mate, Prince Alfonso Maximiliano Victorio Eugenio Alejandro María Pablo de la Santísima Trinidad y Todos los Santos, Prinz zu Hohenlohe-Langenburg (AKA Alf,) was the driving force behind bringing padel to Europe. While visiting Corcuera in 1971, Alf enjoyed padel so much that he decided to build Spain’s first two padel courts at his home - the Marbella Club.
This marked the beginning of the game’s popularity in Europe. Tennis player Manolo Santana, who won four Grand Slam titles, was an early devotee. Soon, tournaments were being organised along the Costa del Sol as more and more clubs built their own courts.
Padel is wildly popular in Spain, it has more than 16,000 padel courts, with an estimated six million active players. It is the country’s second most popular sport behind football.
Is Padel British?
A similar sport called platform tennis was played on British cruise ships in the 1910s, then it seems to have been mostly forgotten in the UK until 1992, when the British Paddle Association was formed by a group of passionate British expats seeking to compete in the 1992 World Paddle Championships.
There are around 110,000 padel players across the UK, playing on about 1000 padel courts – a number that is set to grow substantially over the coming years. Spain has over 16,000 courts, so the UK could end up with 20,000 courts.