Padel flourished in Italy, more and more women in the fields

It is no longer just a fashion, it has become a real fashion phenomenon: perhaps even more so than the squash of the turn of the eighties and nineties. So much so that, according to the Italian Tennis Federation, even the British newspaper Watchman He defined the explosion in Italy as “love at first crush”. padel. According to the data indicated by the authors of the article, Lorenzo Tondo and Sam Jones, since the beginning of 2020, the number of exchange courts in Italy has multiplied five times: today we are about 5 thousand. To understand: in the city of Palermo alone there are about a hundred fields, the number of active fields today throughout the UK.

Sport in pink?

But the enthusiasm for the basic practice is also coupled with the growth of activity that sees in Italy excellence a woman: The Guardian notes 7 out of the top 100 in the world, including Chiara Papacina, awarded in the SuperTennis Awards alongside the women’s national team that first climbed onto the podium at the World Championships, behind only Spain and Argentina (the countries) where it is padel is more common).

And the “pink power” that exists in alternative stadiums is being felt all over Europe. As reported by El Paìs, women in Spain equal a third of the entire panorama of athletes in the Iberian Federation: in France, in 2021, it was one in five women’s leagues. And in 2022, a circumstance unique to the world of sports, in the Badel World Tour, the record of women’s tournaments organized during the international review is expected.

Badel Ladies

Back in Italy, the Badel Ladies collection also boasts a rich cast of VIPs: from Melissa Satta to Myriam Leon, from Federica Nargi to Costanza Caracciolo through the inescapable Diletta Lotta, to name a few. But is it really a sport in pink? “Padel is a simple sport and therefore very inclusive – explains Marco Maillaro, co-founder of Z Padel Club: it is a start-up in Milan that has created two temporary padel clubs, with initiatives also dedicated to women – and in the future, on the occasion of the upcoming openings, new inclusive activities will appear to bring more And more women from the Badel world.”

Padel in Italy

In Italy padel It has been practiced since 1991, but in 2008 the discipline was officially recognized by Fit, the Italian tennis federation. From north to south, as mentioned, there are already 5 thousand Padel stadiums (there are also many of them in the province of Brescia), more than double compared to before Covid and already 8% more than in 2021. And in the competitive or amateur fields, it has been confirmed The presence of the growing female. “Finally, things have changed – athlete Chiara Papacina revealed to the Guardian – and I’m glad to see so many young girls and so many women, even over 60, in the substitute’s courts.”