Padel is on the rise in the UK! Athletes like Andy Murray and Jurgen Klopp are ditching tennis for this fun, social sport. Could padel eclipse tennis soon?
As Wimbledon battles on in SW19 you could be forgiven for thinking that tennis will always be the King of racquet sports in Britain.
But there’s a new form of tennis in town as stars including David Beckham, Jurgen Klopp and even Serena Williams are leading the way in making the shift towards padel.
The sport – which is played on a smaller court and with solid racquets – has seen a meteoric rise since its invention by a Mexican businessman in the 1960s, with more than 500 courts across the country as padelmania sweeps across the UK and beyond.
And now athletes say they fear it could eclipse tennis altogether – with seven-time Wimbledon champion Novak Djokovic saying the sport is ‘endangered’.
Padel professionals – delighted that so many people are coming to love their sport – now predict it could be on par with tennis within a decade.
The 37-year-old blamed tennis clubs for this growth – saying there is not enough effort to make tennis ‘accessible’ or ‘affordable’.
‘Tennis is the king or queen of all the racket sports, that’s true, but on a club level tennis is endangered,’ the Serbian number one said.
