Despite the strong development of our sport, we continue to see “paddle” written at times instead of “padel”. Qualisport, the French qualification body for companies in the sports and leisure sector, conducted the survey.

A little history…

At the end of the XIXrd century the transatlantic companies had the idea of ​​fitting out small tennis courts in the holds to occupy the long crossing times. This distraction gave rise to two sports: paddle tennis and platform tennis. These names come from “tennis”, from which these sports borrow a large part of their rules, and from “paddle”, in reference to the use of paddles (modified oars, “paddle” in English), used to hit the ball. Paddle tennis is still practiced in the western United States and in different countries around the world.

It was a Mexican, Enrique Corcuera, who invented modern padel when he built the first court on his property. And it was one of his friends, a Spaniard who was seduced by the game, who introduced it to Spain and codified it to make it a sport in its own right. Along the way, it lost its Anglo-Saxon reference to become Hispanicized and become "padel" (pronounced "padèle").

Padel: a synthesis

Modern padel is a synthesis of different sports from which it borrows the best: tennis, squash, table tennis, Basque pelota, etc. From tennis, it has kept the central net and the service squares but lost the two lanes.

As in squash, the court is surrounded by a closed enclosure of rigid walls and as in Basque pelota, the ball can be played after one or more rebounds on the walls while only one rebound on the ground is authorized. It is played with a thick, rigid racket pierced with holes. The ball is softer than a tennis ball. Points are counted as in tennis.

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