Padel Holds Court in Vero Beach

Paddle?

No, padel.

You mean pop tennis?

No, padel.

Platform tennis, aka “paddle”?

No, padel.

Pah-dell!

Nine years ago, when Marcos Del Pilar arrived in the United States from Spain promoting padel—a racket sport wildly popular in South America and Europe—he was met with confusion. Everywhere else in the world, padel is always pronounced like “paddle.” So, the enterprising Latin, to differentiate this raging racket sport from all others on the planet, stressed the second syllable for the U.S. market. Ergo, “pah-dell.”

And it is the hottest, fastest-growing sport in the world. Including Florida.

Del Pilar is known as “The godfather of North American padel.” He is the founder and former president of the USPA (United States Padel Association), a subsidiary of the USTA (United States Tennis Association), based in Orlando. He also co-founded and is a commissioner of the PPL (Professional Padel League). He is a Master Professional of the USPTA, which has just been rebranded as the RSPA (Racquet Sports Professionals Association).

The Madrid native is an international global padel consultant and head of certification for padel teaching professionals, having designed that process. He also works with sports-
oriented investment groups here and abroad, consulting on the development of padel facilities. He has been doing this for the past 31 years, his head-spinning enthusiasm for the sport ricocheting like a back-wall boast, to use a bit of padel lingo.

“They called me crazy when I came to the U.S. nine years ago when I had the vision to grow this industry,” Del Pilar says. “Padel is a great money-maker, it has a great social aspect, and it’s easy to learn but hard to master.”

These positive attributes of the game have led to staggering global growth statistics, according to the 2024 Playtomic Global Padel Report: 26 percent growth in courts in 2023; 4.5 million padel rackets sold last year—Pucci and Prada rackets among them. In 2016, only 10,000 courts had been built globally; in 2024 the number is expected to have increased to around 51,000. By 2026 there will be approximately 70,000 padel courts. Here in the USA, 15 states have at least one padel court, with that number expected to explode. 

And Vero’s visionaries are all over it.

At this writing, two Vero Beach clubs have built or are in the process of building padel courts: Boulevard Tennis & Padel Club (having recently revised its name) has completed construction of three courts, and Quail Valley has three planned at its new 9-acre site off Indian River Boulevard. All courts are outdoors and lit for nighttime play. They are the first to be built between Boynton Beach and Orlando.

Why is padel so popular? It’s a blend of squash and tennis with a casual, social vibe. It’s a great workout in just one hour. Equipment consists of a padel racket, which resembles a platform tennis racket in size and perforations but is thicker and usually made of graphite, fiberglass, or wood. The ball looks like a tennis ball but is smaller. The court itself is one-third the size of a tennis court and is surrounded by high walls of plexiglass and fencing. Flooring is typically artificial turf/carpeting, and therefore easier on the body than pickleball or platform tennis.

The serve is delivered underhand with contact made below the waist. Scoring is the same as tennis; however, when deuce is reached, it becomes the “gold point”: the receiving team decides which player gets the serve. The team that wins the point wins the game. Lines are the same as tennis, to scale.

Here’s the fun part: like squash and platform tennis, the walls are in play once the ball has bounced within the lines. And unlike those sports, if the ball bounces out of the court, it’s still live; a player can run out of the court and hit it back into the court within the lines before it bounces and continue the point. Play is dynamic, competitive, and social (doubles only). Tournaments can be played in one of two formats: “Americano,” a friendly, inclusive format that scores individually, and “Mexicano,” a progressively more competitive team format.

The game has been particularly appealing to a younger demographic—ages 18 to 55—a statistic not lost on Kevin Given, chief operating officer and managing partner of Quail Valley in Vero Beach. “Our club is very young,” he says. “Our members are very busy, they have kids; it’s a great mixture with 40 percent year-round residents. We have to think as a nontraditional club.”

The idea for padel was brought to Given during COVID by Quail Valley tennis professional Sam Garcia. Given started researching padel, recognizing that it’s more popular in Europe but has been showing up in markets like Connecticut, New York, Boston, and Philadelphia. The decision was made to include a trio of padel courts as part of a new fourth Quail Valley club property, along with pickleball courts, a stadium tennis court, lap pool, squash, bocce, a wellness center, and other amenities. Given expects the new site to be completed in 2026.

Padel originated in the 1960s in Acapulco; it spread to Spain, then the rest of Europe, and to South America. In 1991 the International Paddle Federation was established, and in 1992 the first world championships were held in Spain. In 1993 the name was changed to padel but pronounced like “paddle.”

In 1994, the first padel courts in the United States were built at the Houstonian Club in Houston, Texas and spread throughout the country from there, with hubs being in Miami, New York, Philadelphia, and California. Padel is now part of the Euro Games, the Pan Am games, and soon, the Olympics.

And because the walls surrounding a padel court are glass, it can be easily televised. Its commercial potential is already being realized. Temporary courts have been set up in convention centers, for example. Audience seating can surround the court. Professional tournaments and international team competitions draw big crowds, big names, big prize money, and big sponsors.

Longtime Vero Beach resident Ed Shanaphy, president of Behind the Baselines, currently manages operations for six clubs, one of which is Boulevard Tennis & Padel. He and the owners were instrumental in bringing the game to Boulevard, where he is director of club operations. Padel has been on his radar for quite a while, as he is also a tennis professional.

Besides padel being an up-and-coming sport, particularly with the Gen Z set, Shanaphy ran the numbers and found that by converting the unpopular and little-used stadium court venue into three padel courts, usage would more than triple, resulting in more patronage at the adjacent restaurant, now called The Padel Grille, and the pro shop. Current members have the option of upgrading to include padel. The club is also offering a limited, separate membership just for padel.

“It’s a different membership,” says Shanaphy. “You have different types of players for padel; it’s a totally different demographic from tennis. It’s younger, they’re working, they have young families; they come before work, at lunchtime, or after work.”

There is a junior program on the weekends, with the youngest padel-ers being 4 to 5 years old. To meet the demands of the padel program, Boulevard hired a full-time padel pro, Yarik Bahan. Originally Ukrainian, the 32-year old came to Vero Beach from a squash club in Norwalk, Connecticut. He was No. 1 in squash and No. 4 in padel in Ukraine, and he coached the Ukrainian national squash and padel teams.

A few years ago, Shanaphy interviewed Patricio Misitrano on his Behind the Baselines podcast about padel. Misitrano grew up playing the game in Argentina, eventually becoming a tennis professional and settling in Connecticut. In 2023, he and three partners opened a 35,000-square-foot indoor facility in Norwalk called the Sports Haus, which has five padel courts, four fenced-in pickleball courts, two Trackman golf simulators, locker rooms, a self-pour beer and wine wall, and indoor/outdoor lounge areas. It’s the first padel facility in New England.

Misitrano plays on the U.S. National Senior Team, ran the recent Maccabi World Padel Cup in Miami, and knows the nuts and bolts of the court. “There were very few people in the U.S. who knew how to install a court. It’s not rocket science, but it is a science,” he says. International companies have been sending installation managers and teams to train local tennis court builders. Costs can run anywhere from $50,000 to $100,000, depending on the add-ons. Courts can be built indoors or outdoors—the latter being trickier because of the backdrop and the preferred north-south orientation.

Del Pilar says that Sportsfield Specialties in Delhi, New York built a factory and is manufacturing padel court components and installing them. He adds that while most of the current padel courts are outside, the trend is moving indoors, where “play is not weather dependent.” A new facility going up outside Palm Beach will feature indoor padel courts.

Private courts are being built as well, and not just on terra firma. “My friend has a padel court on his yacht,” laughs Del Pilar.