We had the chance to interview Jorge de Benito, who was confined to Madrid, and who talks about the confinement and its consequences on the economy of padel Spanish.

 

Padel Magazine : Tell us about your confinement

Jorge de Benito: I tried to take advantage of the extra time to try to learn new things. I notably followed courses of a Master online. I maintained myself physically, but during the confinement we could not leave our home to play sports. For two weeks, professional athletes have been able to go out at any time to run. For others, it is only possible to go out to do sport from 20 p.m. to do sport. I go out every day to run.

PM: How is the de-containment in Madrid going?

JDB: Like Barcelona, ​​the city of Madrid is a very densely populated area, so there is bound to be more contamination. We stayed in phase 0 two weeks longer than most of Spain. This means that all professionals in padel who are in Madrid cannot train.

PM: When will we return to the slopes?

JDB: Back on the slopes this Monday, May 25. At the moment we can only play one against one. I'm going to go play with my brother, Xavi de Benito, to do the diagonal. As players of the World Padel Tour We are considered professionals, so we can play at any time, but amateurs will only be able to play from 20 p.m., unless they take a lesson with a teacher. On the other hand, from Monday we can go to the bar at any time with a member of our family and join 8 people and sit 10 at a table on the terrace of a bar ...

PM: The state of health of the padel in Spain ?

JDB: The clubs lost a lot of money during the confinement. And there it will continue to be very difficult, all the tracks will not be able to open, only from 1 to 1, on certain time slots, with the bars closed, the crisis is likely to continue for a while. For teachers and club employees, the situation is also very complicated. For the moment the government has not paid technical unemployment. Many people have not been paid for three months, it is very hard in all sectors of the economy. Many Spaniards go out to the streets every night, banging on pots and pans to express their dissatisfaction.

PM: Regarding the resumption of World Padel Tour ?

JDB: I don't think it will be for now. You have to wait until phase 3 is finished. And then you have to give people time to train. Some resumed two weeks ago, and in Madrid we can only resume on Monday. We must therefore give the players a little time, so that they can all resume padel at 4, find automatisms, put things in place, and that everyone can resume with a good level. It would be nice if the WPT started again in July or August, but I'm not sure that is possible. For the moment we do not even know if it will resume in 2020. It is so complicated for the clubs that they will have difficulty paying to organize the preprevias and previas phase of a WPT tournament…

PM: A resumption in camera possible?

JDB: I don't think there can be as many spectators as before. An organization will have to be found to prevent all people from sticking together. But behind closed doors, it would be too complicated economically for the WPT. Without spectators, they would not make money. Already I am not sure that all the sponsors have the resources to donate all the money that was originally planned. So if we remove in addition the receipts from the ticket office, the bar, derivatives etc.

 

Xan is a fan of padel. But also rugby! And his posts are just as punchy. Physical trainer of several padel, he unearths atypical posts or deals with topical subjects. It also gives you some tips to develop your physique for the padel. Clearly, he imposes his offensive style as on the field of padel !

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