What is behind rise of the sport that Novak Djokovic fears could be the death of tennis?

As Wimbledon comes to a close, there’s a new racket sport taking the spotlight.

Padel is a hybrid of squash and tennis and is one of the fastest growing sports, with around 25 million players worldwide, according to the International Padel Federation.

Some of its celebrity fans include David Beckham, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo – as well as rapper Stormzy.

However, its growing popularity has concerned the likes of tennis star Novak Djokovic, who recently warned club tennis is “endangered” by the rise of padel.

The seven-time Wimbledon champion said tennis had done a “very poor job” in making the game accessible and affordable for aspiring players.

“Tennis is the king or queen of all the racket sports, that’s true. But on a club level, tennis is endangered,” he said.

“If we don’t do something about it… globally or collectively, padel, pickleball in [the] States, they’re going to convert all the tennis clubs into padel and pickleball because it’s just more economical.

“You have one tennis court. You can build three padel courts on one tennis court. You do the simple math. It’s just much more financially viable for an owner of a club to have those courts.”

What is padel?

It’s played on an enclosed court about a third of the size of a tennis court with back walls for the ball to bounce off.

The game – which was devised in Mexico in the 1960s – is growing at speed in the UK.

According to the UK’s governing body of tennis the Lawn Tennis Association, last year saw a 600% rise in padel clubs with around 90,000 people playing on an annual basis.

The UK has over 450 padel courts. This, compared to 250,000 tennis courts in the UK, is simply incomparable according to the co-owner of London’s largest padel club, Rocket Padel.

Carl Heimdal told Sky News: “It’s not about competing. They’re all racket sports and can all co-exist.”

His club manager, Oskar Wynne, told Sky News that – in line with Djokovic – padel is “more profitable” than tennis.

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Wynne said: “It’s been amazing to see the take-up in Ilford. We opened on 8 April and already have 4,000 customers.

“It’s a smaller court and you can get four paying customers on a padel court… so just in simple terms, economically, it makes more sense and is more profitable than a tennis court.”

Sam Jones is the men’s Number 2 for padel in the UK.

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He told Sky News that padel’s success is down to its accessibility to most ages and abilities.

“You don’t realise you’re doing exercise. You’re enjoying it, you’re laughing the whole time… you’re still getting a competitive rally… you’re burning calories and it’s fun at the same time,” he said.

“I do feel like in the future – when padel is more mainstream – it will overtake tennis.”

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