After playing his first two international padel tournaments (FIP Rise Sydney and FIP Promotion Melbourne), the founding ambassador of Padel Australia Patrick Rafter tells his story with padel and takes stock of these two competitions.
More difficult than expected, even for a former ATP number 1…
“I heard about padel about 15 years ago, but I didn't really pay attention to it. Now I wish I had started playing back then…
About a year ago a good friend of mine was playing it and said I should really give it a try, so I did! I was pretty bad at it at first but quickly picked up the basics. I’m very lucky to have a neighbour who has a padel court where we live, Matt Barrelle. He helped introduce padel to Australia and I’m lucky because he gave me access to his court. In Australia there aren’t many courts yet but interest is growing.”
“I really like the complexity of the game. It’s a mix between squash and tennis, but I realize that it’s more important to have defensive skills than offensive skills, and that’s something I have to integrate. Honestly, I thought I could just crush a padel player with powerful volleys and smashes, but no, no, and no!”
A great development in Australia
“I’m really interested to see how the sport evolves. It’s still in its early stages, and I’m looking forward to getting involved in helping the sport grow, and perhaps even investing in the creation of a center or two.”
“Obviously the cost of building and renting courts here in Australia is a problem to solve, but the community is there. The approach is easier than tennis, the racket is smaller and the balls bounce less. The trips are shorter and the balls are constantly coming back to your feet. There are a lot of things to like about padel, let's see what happens in the next ten years in Australia, I'm looking forward to it.”
Will we see him again on the slopes?
“I’m keeping all my options open to see where this sport takes me. Maybe I’ll play a few veteran events for Australia, I really don’t know yet.”
“Everyone will have their strengths and weaknesses in padel. Tennis players are the majority of converts to the sport in Australia, and stopping yourself from playing tennis shots is a very difficult thing. The easy ball in tennis is not necessarily easy in padel. Also, defensive skills are hard to learn, that's something I really need to improve on and it will take time between the glass, the spin and the speed of the ball…”
Xan is a fan of padel. But also of rugby! And his posts are just as punchy. Physical trainer of several padel players, he finds atypical posts or deals with current topics. He also gives you some advice to develop your physique for padel. Clearly, he imposes his offensive style as on the padel court!