Article by Guillaume Willecoq in Courts magazine in the spotlight le padel and its evolution. A small nugget that brings together the great padel, like our colleague Romain Taupin. Vincent Laureyssens, Clément Geens…

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Here is the beginning and the extracts of this survey around the padel :

Or will the sport of racket that goes up, that goes up… stop? After a first contact from his launch number, then having gone to meet Fernando Belasteguin in his no 2, Courts goes for a walk once again to the facilities of padel.

From players to entrepreneurs, from the major advances of recent years to the prospects for those to come, an overview, with its players, of a discipline that never ceases to look beyond its glass walls.

Numbers !

To start with an "objective" overview of the weight of padel, and especially ? - its rise to power. That is 8 million practitioners across the world. More than 3 million people in front of their Youtube stream to follow live the last steps of the World Padel Tour. And, in Spain, since last August, more licensees padel (75) than tennis (a little over 000), a phenomenon all the more remarkable if we consider the speed at which the intersection of the curves took place: the padel had 6 licensees in the early 000s, when RFET, the Spanish Federation, was still above 2000 licensees in 100.

Last measurement to give an idea of ​​the ascending curve of the padel : France has 832 pitches in 2020 against 110 in 2014, and 382 clubs against 48 six years ago. As the ultimate symbol of the soaring padel, maximizing its potential in its historic strongholds and continuing to advance elsewhere.

"If the Hispanic countries remain the strongholds of padel, it is estimated that they tend to reach a ceiling, explains Franck Binisti, a key figure in the media padel in France with his Padel Magazine. Spain, where the number of licenses is not necessarily relevant to reflect a real impact as sport is defined more by a leisure practice, it is 2,5 million practitioners, is the second national sport behind football!

But what is interesting today is that the padel “Takes” everywhere, outside of these flagship countries. France, Portugal, Italy, Sweden, which is the new El Dorado for brands… The dynamics are clearly promising for a sport that is still recent, in the making. "" I have never seen that, confirms Vincent Laureyssens, president of the World Padel Tour Belgium. Even if there is still some margin on the raw figures, +300, +400% on certain indices of progression… it is dizzying! "

But what do they all find there?

"The advantage of padelis that if you try, you'll like it, ”says Vincent Laureyssens. " At padel, we have fun quickly, confirms Clément Geens, No. 601 at the ATP and, like many of his tennis comrades, keen on padel. I happened to give lessons last year and it was obvious how quickly people progressed and laughed quickly. This is the big advantage over tennis: in tennis, you can go there before having fun, it is a sport where you drool at the start! At padel, you can pretty quickly do everything. "

So much for novices. And professional tennis players, those who already know how to play (and not just a little!) Tennis, what pleasure do they find there for all rushing to the pala? "For us it's different, yes, but I would say that we find padel a lot of things that we don't have, or less, in tennis: we play a lot of volleys, we are with a partner, it is less physically hard, too, which explains why many players who quit tennis switch quite naturally towards the padel... It's nice because at the finish line, when you have mastered tennis well, you realize that the padel offers quite different sensations and tactics. "

Last factor, practice this one: "For a municipal club, besides being the sport" in fashion "and allowing a different offer for members, a field of padel has the immense advantage of taking up little space, ”emphasizes Franck Binisti. Between a synthetic turf and a padel, The choice is quickly made ?

To know the rest of this survey, go to the COURTS site and get the latest Opus with, among other things, an article by Remi Bourrières : JUSTINE HENIN: the little girl who wanted to be happy.

And obviously a big congratulations to the founder of the magazine: Laurent Van Reepinghen.

Franck Binisti

Franck Binisti discovers the padel at the Club des Pyramides in 2009 in the Paris region. Since padel is part of his life. You often see him touring France going to cover the major events of padel French.

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