7 Facts You (Probably) Didn't Know About the Origin of Padel

In this article, we are sharing with you 7 fun facts that you probably didn’t know about the origin of padel.

Fact #1
Padel Was Not Created in Spain or Argentina, but in Mexico

It all started in 1962 in Puerto de Acapulco, Mexico, by a wealthy businessman, Enrique Corcuera.

He loved tennis, but didn't have enough space to put on a tennis court. So, he made a smaller version of it: a 20x10m court.

Unfortunately (or maybe luckily), Corcuera was not happy with the ball getting lost in between the trees or in the neighbours’ house. He and his friends spent a lot of time trying to get the padel ball back, turning it into an annoying game. The solution: building a 3-metre wall surrounding the court.

This was the very first padel court in history.

Fact #2
Marbella Club Hotel, the First Padel Courts With Fence on the Sides

Enrique's Spanish friend Alfonso of Hohenlohe-Langenburg tried this new invention at Enrique's home and instantly fell in love with it. Immediately after, he decided to create the first two padel courts in a tennis club in Marbella, Spain, in 1970. This one was the first European Padel club, and the first one with fence on the sides instead of walls.

In the meantime, in 1975, Julio Menditeguy, an Argentinian member of Alfonso's tennis club in Marbella felt the same passion and decided to import the sport to Argentina.

Fact #3
The First Padel Rackets Were Made of Wood

Back then, wooden padel rackets were used, as the Corcuera's court was small to the point that power wasn't needed to hit the ball.

It was funny and interesting for the players to have the ball back after it hit the wall, so they would keep playing, which became the origin of the game.

Fact #4
The First Padel Rulebook Was Written by a Former Miss Argentina

The first rulebook was put together by Enrique’s wife, Viviana, a former Miss Argentina, who gave it to her husband as a birthday present.

Fact #5
Spain Waited for 3 World Championship Editions to Become the World Champion

After the creation of the International Padel Federation (FIP) in 1991, the first World Championship was held in Madrid in 1992. Argentina won the title, defeating Spain in the final. Argentina also won the next two editions (Mendoza 1994 and Madrid 1996) before losing the 1998 championship in Mar del Plata, Argentina, where Spain won its first title.

Winners of the Padel World Cup Championships in History

Fact #6
The Oldest Court in History is Now a Swimming Pool

Enrique Corcuera passed away in 1999, and his wife later sold the house. The new owners decided to knock down the historical padel court to build a swimming pool, which means that the very first padel court no longer exists.

A lot of investors have built courts all over the world, and padel has expanded drastically around the world ever since.

Fact #7
The World Padel Tour Is Not the First Worldwide Circuit in History

The Padel Pro Tour, born in 2005, was actually the first professional tournament circuit. It was promoted by a group of professional padel tournament organizers as the result of the agreement between the Asociación de Jugadores Profesionales de Pádel (AJPP) and the Asociación Femenina Española de Pádel (AFEP).

The World Padel Tour was created in 2013, after agreeing with most of the Top 100 players in the world at that time, to become the leading tour of professional padel players. It was recognized by the International Padel Federation (FIP), which opted for the WPT’s ranking to be the official ranking of all padel players around the world.

Padel Pro Tour

World Padel Tour