Padel, a Mexican racket sport played in doubles, could well be the sport of the summer.
“The renaissance of the sport we love has begun in Canada, and it is not stopping anytime soon,†Roberto Alongi wrote on the Canadian Padel Federation website. “We are proud to be part of this great movement; It’s truly an exciting time for Canadian padel.”
This text is a translation ofa CTV News article.
Bill Stamile, who introduced padel to Canada in 1992, told CTVNews.ca on Friday that the sport was growing not only in Canada, but around the world.
“When it comes to padel in Canada, the very first padel court ever built in North America was here in Calgary,†he said, adding that there are now clubs all over the country.
Can the Canadians compete?
According to Mr. Stamile, Canada is a special case on the world padel scene, which has been largely dominated by Spanish-speaking countries. He noted that the Canadian junior men’s team finished third at the 2009 World Cup in Seville, Spain.
“Some compare it to the medal won by the Jamaican bobsleigh team,” he said. “Spain, Brazil, Argentina, Argentina, Spain, Canada. And so, people look twice.”
Padel was invented in Acapulco, Mexico, by Enrique Corcuera, described as a “tennis fanatic”. This sport is played on a court measuring 20 by 10 meters, with a tennis net and surrounded by three-meter walls. Mr. Stamile explains that it is a game that relies more on angles and patience than pure power, comparing it to chess.
“One of the reasons why this sport has grown so much all over the world is that it is very easy to learn,” he said, adding that the game is designed in a way that players of different levels can still compete against each other. He gave his own example, saying he plays with members of the Canadian national team, while clarifying “it’s not like I belong there.”
“It’s a social sport, easy to learn, a family game. It’s a sport for life.”
—  Bill Stamile
The development of padel players in Canada is hampered by infrastructure challenges, according to Bill Stamile.
“We still have to build the land, we still have to build a building, we still have to heat the building, the electricity and everything else, (not forgetting) the taxes,” he said. “It is much more expensive to put in place the infrastructure necessary for the growth of this sport than it would be in a Caribbean country or virtually anywhere else.â€
Mr. Stamile hopes for more television coverage of the sport, pointing out that matches can be played on glass courts, allowing spectators to follow the matches from all angles. He hopes other big names will get involved, like Serena Williams did earlier this year.
“It’s simply overwhelmed us here and it’s growing a lot,” he said.
Canadian interest in this sport has continued to grow since 2020, according to Google Trends data, and courts can be found across Canada.
The Canadian Padel Federation lists clubs in Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal and Edmonton, with several locations in major cities. Calgary has the honor of being home to Canada’s first padel court, designed by Stamile himself.
“And of course, padel players have this horrible habit, once their match is over, of hanging around there to chat with each other and have a little fun afterwards,” mentioned Bill Stamile.
“It’s here to stayâ€
The game spread throughout the Spanish-speaking world when Spanish prince Alfonso de Hohenlohe-Langenburg built courts in Andalusia, Spain. Julio Menditeguy, a friend of Corcuera, imported it to Argentina. Mr. Stamile later imported it to Calgary from Argentina, where he was born.
He explained that because the game uses an underhand serve and short steps, rather than long lunges like tennis, it is easy to learn but difficult to master, making it a nice challenge with plenty of opportunities for new players to score points.
“When I was much younger and more agile, I used to run after the ball,” said the man who has been playing for more than 30 years. “But now I’m not so agile. So what I do is I let the wall work for me. So if someone hits the ball and I don’t feel comfortable returning it, I stay back; it bounces, hits the wall and comes right back to me, and I keep it in play.”
According to Mr. Stamile, the courts are easy to install and the game is very popular all over the world.
“It just exploded. It’s crazy,” he said of the growth of the sport in the Middle East. He adds that India has seen similar growth, where padel “has been a hit”.
“I think that, whether we like it or not, padel is here to stay,” he concluded.
