(NEXSTAR) — Outdoor courts for a popular racket sport have emerged in Denver, Florida, and Las Vegas. A club operator group has recently declared intentions to invest millions to promote the sport’s growth in the U.S. There is even speculation that the sport might make an appearance in the upcoming Olympic Games.
And no, it isn’t pickleball. But it does have some similarities.
Padel — or pádel, as it is known in Latin American countries where it is already widespread — was created in Mexico in 1969 after businessman Enrique Corcuera modified his squash court, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Similar to tennis, padel is played on a lined court, although smaller, with a net in the middle. Padel also uses the tennis scoring system of 15, 30, 40, and game. Like squash or racquetball, players can hit the ball off the glass and metallic mesh walls that enclose the court. Unlike pickleball, padel is only played in doubles.
And like all racket sports, you’ll need a racket to play. For padel, it’s solid and perforated. The game ball may look like a tennis ball, but it’s slightly softer. You can see the padel equipment in the photo below of Formula 1 drivers Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris volleying a padel ball between them.
As you would in tennis, the ball is served, underhand, from behind the service line and has to go across the net and bounce in the opposite box. It can hit the back wall, but if it bounces and hits the cage first, the ball is out. During play, the ball can be bounced against the wall and into your opponents’ side, UK-based LTA Padel explains. Whether it bounces off the wall or the court, the ball is allowed to bounce only once. Bounce twice, and that’s a point, as in tennis or other racket sports.
The easy-to-use equipment, coupled with the easy-to-follow rules, gives padel the same accessibility as pickleball, the vastly popular sport that gained traction during the COVID pandemic.
“I think the social side of this sport has made it really take off,” Abigail McCulloch, owner of Alma Padel, one of the first padel clubs in the Chicago area, told Nexstar’s WGN in May. “The fact that it’s always doubles makes it inherently a little bit more social.”
Padel first appeared in the U.S. in 1993 when Ed Thompson and Felipe Arnold constructed the nation’s inaugural court at the Houstonian Hotel Club and Spa in Houston, the United States Padel Association (USPA) says.
Head coach Carlos Gonzalez with the Las Vegas-based P1 Padel club told Nexstar’s KLAS last fall that padel has been growing in popularity in the U.S. The sport has slowly been gaining attention in Los Angeles, according to the Los Angeles Times. A new padel club opened in Richmond, Virginia, earlier this year, while Denver’s first padel court was announced in June. A resort near Tampa, Florida, which already attracts golfers and tennis players, unveiled plans earlier this year to add padel courts to its property. The sport is already hot in Miami, where former Heat star Jimmy Butler helped bring in the inaugural Padel Reserve Cup tournament in 2024.
You can find padel clubs in 21 states, according to the USPA.
There are more than 600 padel courts in the U.S. alone, according to Arizona-based Conquer Padel, which announced a $15 million investment opportunity in March to bring padel clubs to Arizona, Utah, Georgia and California. Yankee Global Enterprises, which owns the New York Yankees, has even invested in padel, acquiring an equity stake in the international circuit, A1 Padel.
Spain is credited with being the worldwide leader in the sport, according to The Associated Press. It’s also become popular in Europe since its invention, where tournaments have been held.
The growing presence of padel has prompted some to question whether it deserves a space in the Olympic Games.
In 2023, following padel’s first time being contested at an event organized under the Olympics umbrella, International Padel Federation president Luigi Carraro said they had shown “that we have all of the necessary characteristics to become an Olympic sport.” The same year, The Associated Press reported that padel could appear in the Olympics as early as the 2032 Games in Brisbane, Australia.
The path to the Olympics isn’t easy — padel’s cousin, squash, is set to appear in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics after missing out on several campaigns to add it in the past.
In the meantime, you can find a local padel club near you and follow the U.S. national team on the USPA site. The next international event in which the national team is expected to participate is the Pan American Clubs, played in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in September.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
