Nallé Grinda experienced the very beginning of padel in Mexico. Since then, he has made his way in padel until becoming the WPT Blockchain.com director of Miami.

Witness to the birth of padel

Nallé Grinda: “I started playing padel in 1980, when I was only four years old. Through his best friend, Tony Murray, mwe father knew Enrique Corcuera , the inventor of padel. Tony had a house near Enrique's in Las Brisas, Acapulco. We went there four or five years in a row. There were five or six houses in the neighborhood where each owner had built his own padel court. They were all tennis players and liked to play padel together. They used to organize games at each other's houses. And each house liked to create its own rules, based on certain constraints, opinions or whims."

“All the courts in Acapulco had different sizes and configurations. The length of the court could vary between 18 and 20 meters. Some used the walls of the house. Each court had its particularities. The standard court is now fixed (20m x 10m). But back then, everything was flexible, including the hardware used."

Terrain-de-padel-1976-Manuel-Arango-acapulco

The first world championships

Nallé Grinda: “I remember how they had the ironic idea of ​​playing the “World Padel Championships”. There were 16 of them. They were actually the only “serious” players in the world, as they liked to say."

"But, overall, throughout my youth, padel was just a fun game. My uncle had a house in Saint-Tropez where we were able to play a lot of padel too. But, it was just a game for me, my first real passion was tennis."

inzerillo grinda canet victory

The real beginnings in padel

Nallé Grinda: "I did sports studies in France and, from the age of 17 to 21, I played tennis professionally, participating in tournaments in Europe, the United States and some in South America. But, due to a series of injuries and operations, I decided to go play for UCLA, where I received a full scholarship. At the age of 24, I graduated and that's when I rediscovered padel in a new light."

"When I returned to Nice, where my family is from, I found a quarter-page advertisement in the newspaper to come and see an exhibition match with Gaby Reca, Juan Martin Diaz, Hernan Auguste and Fernando Belastaguin. It was in 2002. The organizers of the match, Gilbert Dalbergue and Claude Baigts, president of the French Padel Federation at the time, were so passionate about padel that they did everything they could to make the event a success."

Represent France

Nallé Grinda: "At that tournament I met Claude Baigts and, seeing my qualities as a tennis player, he pushed me to play padel for the French national team. So, in 2002, I participated in the World Championships for France in Mexico. In the first round, playing with Sébastien Corbelli, another freshly converted tennis player, we won our first match easily. In the second round, however, we met Argentinians, who were seeded 12. We won our first game quietly and then we discovered what real padel was, since we lost 6/1 6/0. It was a whole new level for us."

"At the time, I had a fleeting career in television. I was on the Fear Factor show in Patagonia, Argentina, and extended my stay for intensive training at “El Monasterio” in Buenos Aires, with famed coach Nito Brea and some of the best players in the world. I learned the real basics of the game, from the position on the ground to the rotation in the corners, including the chiquita and all the aerial options. From there, I never looked back. I played for the French national team for the next ten years."

His journey to organizing the WPT Miami

Nallé Grinda: "Fast forward to 2014, I had moved to Miami. having met Wayne boich Thanks to my connections in tennis, I managed to convince him to try padel when we were on vacation in Nice. When we returned to Miami, I showed Wayne the only local padel court in town. And very quickly, he fell in love with it. So much so that he transformed the tennis court at his house in South Beach into a luxurious padel court."

“Once the building was built, Wayne and I became the most visible faces of padel in Miami. We brought in some of the best professional players, including Juan Martin Diaz who was still the world number 1, to play pro-am matches. The following year, in 2015, we welcomed the eight best players in the world, accompanied by their sponsors. Thanks to the momentum of padel that grows every year and the formation of a good team (Wayne Boich, Dani Homedes and myself), we were able to bid and win the organization of the WPT this year in Miami."

Juan Lebron Nallé Grinda Semmler

"Given the success of the Miami event, we are confident to organize other events in the future. Of course, Miami will be a key hub, but we hope to have other events around the United States as well in 2023.”

This interview was conducted by Minter Dial during the WPT in Miami in March 2022.

From his names, we can guess his Spanish and Italian origins. Lorenzo is a multilingual passionate about sports: journalism by vocation and events by worship are his two legs. He is the international gentleman of Padel Magazine. You will often see him at various international competitions, but also at major French events. @eyeofpadel on Instagram to see his best padel photos!

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