The Bandeja Magazine Issue 1

international
Padel scored a landmark achievement
earlier this year with the addition of
an exhibition court to a Grand Slam
tennis tournament.
The pop-up court attracted
Maxime Cressey’s coaches
Armand D’Harcourt and
Romain Sichez, pictured
with Mark Monjonell and Erin
Purtle. Photo: Lee Bradshaw
The Australian Open threw its doors
open to the sport, hosting a pop-up
court at Melbourne Park for the public
to try it and watch exhibition matches.
In the shadow of the Rod Laver arena,
the court attracted a huge amount of
interest, with organisers hoping it will
drive engagement with the sport,
described by AusPadel, the Australian
Padel Federation as ‘the ‘T20’ of cricket,
the ‘touch rugby’ of rugby, the ‘cross-fit’
of gym and the ‘five-a-side’ of football’.
Tennis Australia, which has taken
over national governance of the
sport, hopes that within three years
an international tournament will be
played at Melbourne Park.
Erin Purtle, who was involved in the
initiative, said the Australian Open
was a ‘huge success’ for padel in
Australia. “Before the AO if you asked
anyone if they’d heard of padel they
would think that you were talking
about stand-up paddle (boarding)
Matt Thomas
but since the AO everyone knows what
padel is! It was on the news and in
newspapers getting great coverage.
The problem now is that
we have so few courts to promote
the sport further, but there is plenty
of activity and many rumours about
new locations opening in Australia.”
At present the country has just
24 public courts at six clubs in
Sydney, Perth, Melbourne and the
Gold Coast - making it a prime target
for development. Fifteen courts are
expected to open this year.
European padel operators have
expressed interest in expanding their
operations down under and there
are a growing number of
home-grown organisations
looking to invest in facilities.
Brit Matt Thomas, along with Matt
Barrelle (now president AusPadel),
is credited with introducing padel to
Australia in 2016 having seen it played
in Spain while working as a tennis
coach there. Matt T is now ranked
Australia’s top player and both he
and Matt B represented the country
at the recent Seniors World Padel
Championship in Las Vegas.
16 thebandeja.com