Millions play padel. Will anyone watch it?
Britain | Padel power
Millions play padel. Will anyone watch it?
Britain is a test case
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Photograph: Getty Images
Aug 3rd 2026|2 min read
AS WIMBLEDON’S manicured lawns take a break after last month’s tennis championships, London is playing host to a tournament for a newer racket sport. Padel, a hybrid of tennis and squash, has backers who hope to take it into the big league. The London leg of Premier Padel, the Qatar-funded professional circuit, on August 4th-9th is one of 26 elite tournaments in the calendar and the first to be held in Britain. Padelistas from 15 countries (the leading players are Spanish and Argentine) are competing for a share of the €479,000 ($550,000) prize pot.
“It’s the right moment for a tournament in London,” says Luigi Carraro, the president of the International Padel Federation (FIP). Padel is one of the fastest-growing sports in Britain. About 1m people have played it at least once in the past year, according to the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA), which governs padel in Britain—up from 15,000 in 2019. The sight of brightly coloured padel courts encased in glass is increasingly familiar: in 2020 Britain had 87 of them; now it has over 2,000.
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