It’s around a stand in the  Palau Sant Jordi during the last WPT tournament  that we were able to meet a big name in padel from the 1995s,  Pablo Rovaletti , better known as  the nickname “Pali”.  The native of Mar del Plata has been for several years  “Product Manager” at Bullpadel.  His mission within the Spanish firm is to develop its products so that they best adapt to the needs of players. But before talking about the new technologies deployed by the brand, a quick look back at this player who  will have marked the fans of a past generation. 

“Pali”, a player from the old school

“Nobody should know me. (laughs) I started playing padel over 30 years ago, in 1988. I was lucky enough to play professionally for twenty years. At first, it was in Argentina. Just before the first pro circuit came out, we succeeded with  Javier Maquirrain  to become  the first world number 1s.  He was the good one on the team, I was just accompanying him. Afterwards, I continued to play in Spain and when I retired, I decided to create my own brand.”

“From 2016, I started working for Bullpadel. They had in their sights the objective of manufacturing the best palas in the world, without any limits on research and innovation. This is what motivated me in my choice to sign with them.”

“On the pro circuit, there is still Fernando Belasteguin against whom I was able to play for several years. At the beginning, we won against him often, but at a certain point, he was the one winning against us all the time. And then there is also Juan Martin Diaz. I also had the chance to play alongside Gaby Reca, who has now become an excellent coach.”

“A game similar to that of my time”

During this Master Final which was played in Barcelona, ​​we noticed that the track was relatively slow compared to many others this season. Some matches even lasted more than two hours, requiring players to adapt their game. Indeed, the conditions did not lend themselves to the powerful pace that we are now used to seeing. This is why we wanted to know our guest’s point of view.

“I have a very personal vision. It is true that for a few years now it has been played very quickly, but we do not see any new shots between my time and now. For example, the vibora. We hit it harder in my time. Today, players are better prepared physically and they benefit from a major asset, quality coaches. The game is certainly faster, but it is still similar to what I knew. It must also be said that the palas have changed enormously since then, there has been a great technological advance. Today, it is much easier to get the ball out by 3. Playing with the palas of today and those of before is nothing like that. I would say that this is the biggest change.”

Pablo Rovaletti

“Improve the palas every year”

“A few years ago, the real change was the transition from  the wooden pala with EVA foam . And subsequently new very useful factors were added such as the customization of the pala with the weight, the technology in the frames for  optimize the power/control ratio . I think that at Bullpadel, we are  the pionneers  in this area and are very proud to see that other brands have decided to do the same.”

“Before releasing a new collection, we try for several years to improve the palas that compose it. In addition, thanks to our very large panel of testers, we can carry out numerous tests on the track. I'm also playing with several players within our academy to try out all these new racquets, at different sensitivity levels. This ranges from professional to amateur players.”

“The palas that we find for sale are equipped with the same technologies as the players' rackets. The only difference that could be noted is a customization detail such as added weight. 10 years ago when we released the weight system that allowed us to customize each pala in terms of weight for each player. We therefore tried to transpose this specificity from the professional to the amateur. Thus, recreational players were also able to personalize their racket because it is above all this type of player that we want to see improve. Today, we continue to maintain the good quality of our technologies launched a few years ago. I can take the example of one of them that we do not see with the naked eye, it is the resin that we use to make our products. The EVA foam, we have improved it a lot.”

Very soon, we will publish a new article dedicated to the technologies that make up the palas Bullpadel. And all this explained of course by the great “Pali”

Photo credit : Padel Retro

Sebastien Carrasco

Future naturopath and padel enthusiast, Seb is the health/food man of Padel Magazine. He juggles between pala, quinoa and essential oils. For almost two years now he has been dealing with the news of the little yellow ball with the same passion.

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