Tennis is a high-intensity game that only a certain player can play; it requires a level of fitness, whereas padel is more of a calmer sport, where you need to focus a lot more on strategy and don’t require the kind of energy that you would need in tennis.
We have people starting from four or five years old playing padel today, going up to people aged 70 to 80. – Hassan Almannai
PADEL – THE game of padel has taken Bahrain by storm.
It is one of the most popular and most well-participated sports in the kingdom today – easy to learn, fun, and sociable – and indoor and outdoor courts are springing up all across the island, despite only being introduced here a few years ago.
A mix of tennis and squash, padel makes for a different kind of challenge. The blend of the two traditional racquet sports offers a fresh, unique experience – one that is enjoyed with a playing partner as matches are usually contested between pairs.
“Padel is a game for everyone,” Hassan Almannai, manager at Let’s Padel, one of the kingdom’s leading padel centres located at the Ritz-Carlton Bahrain premises in Seef, told the GDN.
“In a padel court, you will see that the net represents the tennis part of the sport, and the glass around the court represents the squash part. But it is its own enjoyable game in itself.”
Padel was first played in the late 1960s, invented by Enrique Corcuera – a Mexican businessman who lived in Acapulco, Mexico.
Corcuera is credited for setting up the first recognised padel court on land he owned, with walls and a metallic fence rising up to four metres on all sides.
Later, Spanish entrepreneur Prince Alfonso de Hohenlohe, a close friend of Corcuera who regularly visited him at his residence, was introduced to the game, and he eventually helped raise its profile when he brought it across the Atlantic.
Courts were soon built across Spain, more players began to participate, and over the years, its rise led to the formation in 1991 of the International Padel Federation, in which Bahrain is a member.
The Bahrain Padel Federation (BPF) was established in 2021 following the directives of Supreme Council for Youth and Sport first deputy chairman, General Sports Authority chairman, and Bahrain Olympic Committee president Shaikh Khalid bin Hamad Al Khalifa.
The BPF is dedicated to ensuring the development of the sport in the nation, and it is widely achieving that goal.
Padel now brings together players of all ages, nationalities, and skill levels. And Almannai credits its rapid surge in popularity – both in the kingdom and around the world – largely to its physically less-demanding characteristics.
“Tennis is a high intensity game that only a certain player can play; it requires a level of fitness, whereas padel is more of a calmer sport, where you need to focus a lot more on strategy and don’t require the kind of energy that you would need in tennis,” Almannai explained.
“We have people starting from four or five years old playing padel today, going up to people aged 70 to 80 years old.”
Almannai highlights that padel can be easily picked up by anyone, with only a few sessions needed before already seeing significant progress. He added that having a background in any racquet sport is a bonus, but not at all necessary.
“For a player who has any type of foundation in other racquet sports, starting padel would be even easier,” Almannai said. “But even with no racquet experience, padel players can get used to the game really fast. They can adapt to it with very minor coaching and guidance.
“It definitely helps to have played tennis or squash previously, but the different thing about padel is you don’t need a lot of aggressiveness and a lot of power. You need to take it step by step and build up your point.
“There is more of an emphasis on strategy and teamwork, and you need to be in sync with your playing partner.”
Almannai says that most new players have never been involved in racquet sports prior to starting padel.
“A majority of the padel community, I have noticed, were non-racquet players,” he noted. “It is not only easier in terms of technique, but also in terms of fitness.
“This sport therefore got their attention, which is one of the main reasons for its sudden boom in the world.”
Many of Bahrain’s top tennis players now allocate more of their time and effort to playing padel – if not having shifted sports completely. Almannai believes this trend will continue.
“Being in the padel community, everyone knows everyone, and padel may have had more highlights and more attention drawn to it in recent times than tennis, which is not a new game,” he said.
“Padel is a newer sport, so it has been attracting more and more players.”
Major padel competitions are also rising in Bahrain. One that is coming up soon is the kingdom’s ninth Open Ranking Tournament, organised by the BPF and to be hosted at Let’s Padel from October 17 to 22.
The event will feature men’s, women’s, and juniors competitions, and it is the latest of many national and regional meetings being held in the kingdom.
Furthermore, padel is one of the 26 sports that will feature in the ISF Gymnasiade Bahrain 2024, taking place later this month with over 5,000 participants flying the flags of more than 70 countries from around the world.
“We host all kinds of tournaments at Let’s Padel, organised by the federation or the players themselves, as well as corporate functions,” said Almannai.
“We’ve had major tournaments where we had to seat almost 3,000 spectators one night.
“We have hosted championships with players coming from neighbouring countries and competing, and we are aware of efforts to bring even bigger international tournaments to Bahrain soon.
“The padel tournament scene here is very active and exciting.”
Just like padel, another innovative racquet sport has recently seen a massive increase in popularity and participation all over the world: pickleball.
The game, which is also similar to tennis but played with a hollow plastic ball and on a smaller court, has yet to make it big in Bahrain, and Almannai does not see it overtaking padel any time soon.
“I don’t see pickleball being anywhere as close to padel in popularity, with all due respect to pickleball players,” Almannai laughed. “I know it is very famous, especially in the US. I’ve also watched a lot of games, but I don’t think it will have the same kind of impact here.”
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