Padel is a growing sport. Of the 50,000 sports fields that will see the light of day in 2024 in France, 10% will be intended for padel. This sport, a mixture of tennis and squash, is attracting more and more followers. Exactly this week, the second edition of a major padel tournament with the best players in the world is being held at Roland-Garros. The opportunity for many curious to go there and discover this discipline, but also for the “fans” of other sports to see the professional players in the biggest tournament ever organized in France.
Conquered spectators
In the sublime setting of Roland-Garros, this group of friends took the opportunity to discover padel: “Frankly, I loved it. It’s quite surprising with the rebound on the glass, you have to be able to anticipate”, explains the one of them. Right next door stands the 15,000-seat Philippe Chatrier court.
Inside, the usual clay has given way to synthetic and padel glass. This is where the best players in the world have been competing since the beginning of the week, under the gaze of delighted spectators. “For once, it’s really impressive and it’s going super fast. The guys have crazy reflexes”, declares a spectator at the microphone of Europe 1. “For me, it’s new. It’s true that there , the fact of watching matches in reality, it’s fascinating”, exclaims a spectator. Finally, a last says that it has “always made him want to play. There, in addition, we really see incredible points that we do not necessarily have in tennis”.
“It’s mostly a recreational sport”
From novice to regular, everyone is won over, to the delight of Arnaud Di Pasquale, tournament director: “It was a little bit our desire to discover padel, to discover the Roland-Garros stadium under another aspect. Yes, there are pro players, it’s spectacular, but it’s above all a leisure sport, it’s very accessible”, he explains.
If for the moment the tournament is confidential compared to its big brother, tennis, the goal is to become in the coming years a major event in the world of sport.