Padel (sport)

Padel is a racquet sport. In the US and Canada the sport is known as Paddle.

In the US, it is played as a winter sport in country clubs, with heated courts. This is a way for tennis players and golfers to have an outdoor sport to play when it's cold in northern states. Some high schools in affluent areas are starting to form teams as the sport's popularity increases.

History

Padel is typically played in doubles on an enclosed court a third the size of a tennis court. Scoring is the same as normal tennis and the balls used are similar but with a little less pressure, the main differences are that the court has walls and the balls can be played off them in a similar way as in the game of squash and that solid, stringless racquets are used. The height of the ball being served must be at or below the waist level. The sport was invented in Acapulco, Mexico, by Enrique Corcuera in 1969. It is currently most popular in Hispanic American countries such as Argentina and Mexico as well as in Spain, although it is now beginning to spread rapidly across Europe and other continents.