{"id":161,"date":"2026-08-28T12:30:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-28T04:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xtzpadel.com\/archives\/161"},"modified":"2026-09-11T14:30:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T06:30:13","slug":"history-of-padel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xtzpadel.com\/es\/archives\/161\/","title":{"rendered":"The History of Padel: From Mexico to a Global Sport"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Padel is often described as the world’s fastest-growing racket sport, but its story is shorter and more surprising than most people expect. Invented less than 70 years ago, the game has spread from a private estate in Mexico to more than 90 countries, driven by a simple idea: tennis should be easier to learn, more social and more fun to play on smaller courts.<\/p>\n

Origins: Mexico, 1969<\/h2>\n

Padel was invented in 1969 in Acapulco by Enrique Corcuera, a Mexican businessman who wanted to build a court on his property but did not have enough space for a full tennis court. He adapted the dimensions of his land, added walls around the playing area, and borrowed the scoring system from tennis. The original court was smaller than the regulation size used today, and the first “paddle” rackets were wooden \u2014 but the core idea was set: a four-walled racket game played in doubles.<\/p>\n

The sport quickly spread through the Americas. In 1975, a Spanish friend of Corcuera’s brought the concept to Marbella, Spain, where it was soon adopted by the Marbella Club and the Puente Romano resort. Those venues became the European cradle of padel and helped establish Spain as the country that would dominate the game for decades.<\/p>\n

Standardization and the Spanish Boom<\/h2>\n
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In Spain, the FEP (Federaci\u00f3n Espa\u00f1ola de P\u00e1del) helped formalize the sport in the early 1990s. The standard 20 \u00d7 10 m court, the 0.88 m net at center and 0.92 m at posts, the 12 mm tempered glass walls and the artificial turf playing surface were codified into a uniform professional format \u2014 the same specification behind every court XTZ Padel builds today, as detailed in our Classic Padel Court<\/a> series. The padel racket evolved from solid wood to foam-core, then to carbon fiber and advanced composites \u2014 making shots faster and the professional game more athletic.<\/p>\n

Throughout the 2000s and 2010s, padel grew quietly in Spain, Argentina and a handful of other countries, mostly through private clubs and resort developments. By 2015, Spain alone had more than 10,000 courts, and the World Padel Tour (founded 2013) had turned the professional circuit into a televised spectacle.<\/p>\n

The Global Decade: 2015\u20132025<\/h2>\n

Around 2015, padel started to expand beyond its traditional markets. The first dedicated multi-court clubs opened in Italy, Sweden, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, France and the United Arab Emirates. The Qatar Airways-backed Premier Padel tour launched in 2022, bringing unified ranking points and prize money to the men’s and women’s game, accelerating professionalization and media coverage.<\/p>\n

The numbers tell the story:<\/p>\n