Did the show “Les douze coups de midi” make a mistake about the origins of padel? We checked.

In the show The Twelve Strokes of Noon of July 4, 2025, hosted by Jean-Luc Reichmann on TF1, a question amused the audience while questioning padel enthusiasts:

"How did the inventor of padel, a very fashionable racket sport, come up with this idea?"

Two answers were proposed:
– “He didn’t like running very much.”
– “No room in the garden” (answer presented as correct)

But while this explanation may seem trivial, it's based on a true story, albeit an oversimplified one. Padel didn't just appear on a small field: it's the result of a family project, thought out, codified, and also partly influenced by a decisive woman, Viviana Corcuera.

Contrary to what you think, it was not Acapulco...

Exclusively, Padel Magazine went in search of the origins of this sport. And you will see that the story that says it all started in Acapulco is not really true.

In 2023, we interviewed Enrique Corcuera, the son of the inventor of this sport who has the same first name! He then immersed us in the TRUE story of this sport, whose history has sometimes been revisited, bent, arranged, or transformed...

Enrique Corcuera Jr.: “My father wouldn't believe his eyes!”

Even before Acapulco, Enrique Corcuera was already experimenting with wall-mounted games at his family home in Estipac (in the state of Jalisco, Mexico). In a converted pelota court, he would set up a net and play with his friends. It was an enclosed court, already small in size (about 20 x 10 meters). Could we then call it padel? No, not really. But it's clear that the history of padel and its great beginnings are more subtle.

Enrique Corcuera and Las Brisas: a context conducive to invention

In 1969, in the seaside resort of Las Brisas, Acapulco, businessman Enrique Corcuera wanted to play tennis at home. But the layout of his property, sloping and surrounded by vegetation, made it impossible to build a traditional court.

He therefore decided to build a smaller field (20 x 10 meters). To prevent balls from escaping into the bushes or rolling down the hill, he surrounded the track with walls and fences. What was initially a logistical compromise would eventually become a new sport.

Viviana Corcuera, co-creator in the shadows

What few stories recall is that Enrique's wife, the Argentine Viviana Dellavedova de Corcuera, played a key role in the creation of padel.

A former Miss Argentina, athletic and cultured, Viviana regularly plays on this field with her husband. But she often complains about having to run and retrieve the balls that get lost. It was partly for her that Enrique had the walls built.

Viviana would later confide:
"If the ball hit a tree, we said it was fair... So we ended up cutting down the trees to stop cheating."

This concern to limit unnecessary efforts, to keep the ball within a defined framework and to invent a more accessible and more fluid game, is at the very origin of what will become padel.

The first rulebook: a founding gesture

Far from simply playing, Viviana Corcuera reportedly took the initiative to draft official rules for the game, to structure the discussions and lay down the foundations for this new practice. (It should be noted that the son believes that these rules were developed by two people, which Viviana would certainly confirm.)

She tells :
"I wrote the first rules of padel tennis, because everything was going in all directions... So in 1969, I sat down, I measured, I thought about the height of the walls, the service areas, the size of the net... and I wrote a little booklet (editor's note: which would be called the Paddle Corcuera). I gave it to Enrique for his birthday."

This handwritten booklet, often mentioned as the first text codifying padel, sets out the foundations of the game:
– service underhand, after bouncing on the ground
– only one bounce allowed per exchange
– active use of walls (like in squash)
– exclusively doubles game
– 20×10 m plot
– and a scoring system similar to tennis

A fun and friendly game, designed to bring people together

Viviana also talks about the atmosphere that reigned around the emerging padel:
“Padel is wonderful because it brings everyone together. Families, friends, children. We laugh, we tease each other… And then at the end, we have a glass of tequila. That's what padel is all about.”

This desire to create a social game, easy to play, without barriers of age or physical condition, is found today in the global explosion of padel.

Viviana Corcuera: “My husband is the inventor of padel”

Marbella, Buenos Aires: the diffusion of an idea

In 1974, a friend of the Corcuera couple, Prince Alfonso of Hohenlohe, discovered the game at Las Brisas. Enamored, he had two lanes built at the Marbella Club in Spain, slightly adapting the rules and opening the game to his circle of aristocrats and artists.

A year later, in 1975, it was the turn of Argentine Julio Menditeguy, a former racing driver and entrepreneur, to bring padel to Buenos Aires. Within a few years, padel became a phenomenon in Spain, and then in Latin America.

Seven facts you don't know about the history of padel!

And the first pitch in all this?

Sadly, after Enrique Corcuera's death in 1999, the Las Brisas property was sold. The original plot of land was demolished and replaced by a swimming pool. Today, there is no physical trace of this founding trail, apart from archival photos and Viviana's testimony.

So, was the show right?

On the set of "Les douze coups de midi," the answer "No room in the garden" was accepted. It's historically accurate, but reductive.

Because in reality:
– Yes, the terrain didn't allow for a tennis court in Las Brisas. But are we right to take Acapulco as the starting point for the beginning of padel?
– But above all, Enrique and Viviana's desire was to make the game accessible, fun, without unnecessary effort.
– And that is precisely what made padel unique

The famous answer "He didn't like running very much" is therefore not as false as it seems.

The history of padel cannot be told without mentioning the Corcuera couple.
If Enrique had the idea for the land, it was also Viviana who gave it part of her soul:
– by codifying the game
– by adapting it to a family practice
– by thinking of a fun, social, and innovative sport

Even if here too, the story is more complete than that, with other contributors, including a well-known family in France, the Nallés... we will tell it in a future column.

Franck Binisti

Franck Binisti discovered padel at the Club des Pyramides in 2009 in the Paris region. Since then, padel has been part of his life. You often see him touring France to cover major French padel events.