Le Padel would be born, according to Sanchez-Alcaraz Martinez[1], in Mexico in 1969, and invented by the businessman Enrique Corcuera. The latter, who wanted to build a tennis court around his house and having not enough room, would have built a pitch of 20 meters on 10 with walls with a height of 3-4 meters. He would have adapted the rules and equipment. He decided to continue playing with a rebound on the ground after the ball hit a wall, and changed the tennis rackets with a string through a wooden racket.

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Before that, tennis took other forms and approached the padel invented by Enrique Corcuera. The first form, called "Paddle tennis" was invented by the reverent North American Franck Beal, who made modifications on a court to teach tennis to children. So he reduced the size of the field in half, introduced a foam ball and a wooden racket. This version was very popular in Michigan and especially among more modest families who could not afford to build a tennis court. In 1922, a paddle tennis tournament was established and the following year the rules were approved by the USPTAC (United States Paddle Tennis Association). This sport has thus become practiced throughout the country.

Meanwhile, in the late 1920s, Freseddenn Blanchardy and James Cosswell made some modifications to improve practice and be able to practice in the winter. Thus, the "platform tennis" was born in the district of Scarsdale in New York. The goal was to allow neighborhood youth who cannot afford to go to indoor clubs to still play sports in winter, even in the snow. For this, they set up a platform system to be able to remove accumulated snow more easily. Very quickly, changes were made: the addition of a fence around the field, a doublet game, a rubber ball and smaller racquets. This practice has made it possible to replace tennis in many states in the United States during the fall-winter periods.

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However, the version which was accepted by the International Federation of padel is that of Enrique Corcuera, the first cited in this part. This sport was then imported to Spain, by one of his friends, Asfonso de Hohenlohe, who took a liking to it. The first Spanish courses were created at the Marbella Club, and were very successful very quickly.

In 1975, Argentinian millionaire Julio Menditengui, a frequent visitor to Marbella, witnessed the success of the padel and decided to import it to Argentina. In a few years, the padel becomes in Argentina on 2rd most practiced sport of the country, with more than 4 million practitioners and 10 000 course. This sport has expanded rapidly in Brazil, Uruguay, Chile and Paraguay.

[1] SANCHEZ-ALCARAZ MARTINEZ Bernardino Javier, “Historia del padel =History of Padel", Materials for the Historia del Deporte (11 number), 2013

https://www.upo.es/revistas/index.php/materiales_historia_deporte/article/view/800

Pierre Lemonnier

Pierre studied STAPS, and validated a master's degree in sports management, after studying in Reims, Frankfurt and Lille. I discovered the padel in 2014 during my Erasmus year in Frankfurt thanks to a Spanish friend. Damn it is good padel !

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