Padel Me This

Ruth Murray, Sandra Drum & Siobhan Murray JUNE23

y the looks of it, padel was invented by two quick-thinking young tennis players who just couldn’t get the cover off their rackets.

A theory that the three Greystonians who represented Ireland at the Senior and Super Senior European Padel Championships may not agree with.

Sandra in action…

Taking place in Alicante, Spain this month, Sandra Drum and sisters Siobhan and Ruth Murray did their country proud at this hard-fought international competition.

And, yep, they’re happy to receive any backhanded compliments you might want to throw at them.

Here’s the official lowdown on the padel showdown…

Greystonians Sandra Drum and the Murray sisters, Siobhán and Ruth, played against some of the best teams in Europe and the world at this month’s European Padel Championships; Sweden, The Netherlands, Great Britain, France, Portugal and the clear favourite, Spain. The latter, unsurprisingly, swept the medals board in all categories.

Padel is Spain’s second-most popular sport after football. It is estimated that over 4 million Spaniards play regularly, while some 80,000 are federated competitive players.

In Alicante, over 800 players from 18 countries competed in the FIP European Championship. The week of play was very positive for the Irish women’s teams who improved their FIP European classification; the Senior Ladies are now ranked in 12th position, and the Super Seniors in 7th.

The Murrays take on runners-up Sweden…

So, what exactly is Padel? It evolved accidentally from the original platform tennis. In 1969, a Mexican called Enrique Corcuera fenced off a section of a tennis court with walls to stop balls going into his neighbour’s garden. Described as a mixture of tennis and squash, it is played in pairs on a smaller-sized tennis court that is enclosed with glass walls and a cage-like structure.

With an underhand serve, the game is easy to learn, fast-paced, exciting and extremely sociable. “As soon as I hit my first shot, I fell in love with padel” explains Sandra.

Played by over 25 million people, it is one of the fastest growing racket sports in the world. In Spain, there are over 20,000 padel courts. Padel is growing in popularity here too.

In Ireland, we currently have 25 courts, and there are more being built as you read this. It would be wonderful to see padel courts in Greystones so that everyone can get a chance to play and enjoy this up-and-coming sport. But be warned, padel is extremely addictive!

You can find out more about the 2023 Padel European Championships here,  and about the Padel Federation of Ireland here.