In a recent debate on  The Team , the question asked was simple: the  paddle  Is it a sport or a hobby? But the way the subject was treated left a taste of amateurism Some columnists compare padel to the “mini golf” of tennis. Reducing this sport to a relaxing activity also means missing out on its  professional reality .

Easy to learn, hard to master

Yes, you can have fun from the first game, which isn't always the case in other sports. But reaching the highest level is another story. Padel requires mastering a  palette of specific moves  bandeja, víbora, topped smashes, flat, rulo, bajada, chiquita, counter-smash, by 3 or 4… and above all defend with the  windows Reading rebounds, adjusting your positioning, anticipating trajectories: skills that require years of practice.

Requirements comparable to tennis

The studies are clear: a professional padel match requires a  cardio load  equivalent to that of a doubles tennis match. Points last longer, with more shots played and a higher concentration time. On the mental side, tactical patience, window management, and constant coordination with your partner are integral parts of performance.

No shortcuts for tennis players

To imagine that an excellent tennis player could immediately shine in padel is a  illusion . Of course, the former tennis player arrives with valuable baggage: quality of shot, sense of the game, solid volley, power on smash. But padel is a  different sport , with some  game diagrams  and  technical moves  which do not exist in tennis.

La  tray , the  viper , the  exit by 3 , the  defense after glass  or  petite  are specific shots that cannot be improvised. They require years of learning and repetition to become . However, this is precisely where tennis players, even experienced ones, come up against a reality: their background is useful but  insuffisant  to perform quickly.

The examples are numerous.  Juan Carlos Ferrero , former world No. 1 in tennis, never really broke through on the padel circuit. More recently,  Jules Mary  acknowledged that defending with the glass and mastering specific shots remained real challenges. Even French champions like  Arnaud Clement  et  Arnaud Di Pasquale  admitted to having had to  unlearn  certain tennis automatisms to progress in padel.

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The truth is simple: the  world best players  of padel Arturo Coello, Agustín Tapia, Ale Galán, are athletes who started  very young  and have trained exclusively in this discipline. Being an excellent tennis player therefore does not offer a shortcut to the elite. To aim for the very highest level, you must follow the same path: years of practice, a complete learning of strokes and a total immersion in the specificities of padel.

A structured and growing sport

Padel is now recognized as a  high-level sport  in France, with a  National Training Center  in Vichy and a plan of  85 million  invested by the FFT. At Roland-Garros, the  Paris Major 2025  gathered more than  27 000 spectators  on the semi-finals and finals. On a global level, the circuit  Premier Padel  is organized around Majors, P1, P2 and the FIP Tour, with a single ranking and prize money certainly lower than tennis but which continues to rise.

Paris Major 2025: 27 spectators in 000 weekend, a record!

A sport still in search of stars

Certainly, padel attracts a growing number of practitioners today, but it still suffers from a  lack of identification in France with its champions , in other countries where padel is established is considered a sport in its own right. Many play regularly without necessarily knowing the names of the  best in the world  nor follow the professional circuit. Unlike tennis, where Federer, Nadal or Djokovic have shaped a culture and retained generations of fans, padel has not yet built this strong bond between its players and the general public. It is one of the  major areas for improvement  for sport: developing emblematic figures, strengthening media coverage, and allowing players to become attached to stories and personalities, beyond the simple pleasure of playing.

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Benjamin Dupouy

I discovered padel directly during a tournament, and frankly, I didn't really like it at first. But the second time, it was love at first sight, and since then, I haven't missed a single match. I'm even ready to stay up until 3am to watch a final of Premier Padel !

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