Not far from Spain where it is king, padel is progressing from year to year on Aude soil, in more and more private structures, but also within tennis clubs of which it is a variant.
Born in Mexico in 1869, national sport in Argentina, 2e A national sport in Spain, padel is gradually arriving in France and is beginning to appeal to tennis, squash and badminton players. Among the famous pioneers, Henri Lecomte who very quickly set up his own club.
Quite unanimously, the qualifier attributed to padel is… playful! But not only: it also requires strategy, touch of the ball and physical effort. On Aude soil currently, there are around thirty courts in private structures (5 courts at the Area Padel Club in Narbonne and at the Padel Club in Carcassonne, 2 at Indoor Center Narbonne, but also at Paradis and Oustal Carcassonne ) and public associations (57 clubs affiliated to the FFT).
Many projects are being developed within tennis clubs (padel being a discipline of the French Tennis Federation) to offer their licensees a new activity. New private structures are also scheduled, such as in the Saint-Salvayre district in Narbonne, with 6 covered courts announced.
A constantly evolving sport
“The number of practitioners is constantly changingexplains Quentin Fages (1), head of the padel commission at the Aude tennis committee. Since the FFT licenses are the same for tennis and padel, it is still difficult to identify the exact number of followers. The private structures operate a lot on hourly rental, without taking a federal license, while the clubs, on the other hand, rather offer memberships with a license included. Many tournaments (2) sorganized now, more in private structures for the moment. The Aude committee, for its part, has organized a departmental tournament every year for the past 4 years which qualifies a ladies’ team and a men’s team for the regional championship.
This year, the tournament has been scheduled for May 26. In addition, for the 2021-2022 season, an Aude interclub championship, made up of three level divisions and limited to 8 teams of 5 or 6 players per division, was created under the responsibility of referee Philippe Le Lead: “A first for the FFT” assures Quentin Fages. A 5-day autumn phase (see results below) took place in October and November, and a 5-day spring phase will also run from April 8 to May 22. The final phase is set for June 5.
The enthusiasm for padel is real. “Many tennis players take up padel and take advantage of it, as it’s a fairly technically accessible sport.observes Quentin Fages, it is that people who have never been with a club can come and play. And often when you play it once, you always play it.” padel? To try it is to adopt it.
The main rules of padel
The padel is played exclusively in doubles (2 against 2) with yellow or white balls of 6.35 to 6.77 cm in diameter for a weight of 56 to 59.4 g and rackets of 300 to 370 g, long 45.5 cm maximum, 26 cm wide, 38 mm thick.
The padel playing area is a rectangle 10 m wide by 20 m long without corridors, with two service areas of 6.95 m, and divided in the middle by a net of 10 m by 88 cm in the center and up to 92 cm at the ends. The court is enclosed by a grid and glass walls. The height of the court is 7 m minimum.
The service is done diagonally like in tennis, with two service attempts (first and second ball). The server is behind his service line and must bounce the ball before performing his underhand serve. The receiver stands where he wants on the field, diagonally from the server. Side changes occur when the sum of the games played during the set is odd.
Padel borrows its point counting system from tennis. It takes 6 games to win a set and the team that wins two wins the game. In the event of a tie at 6 games everywhere, we proceed to a deciding game, as in tennis. In the event of a one-in-all tie, a 10-point super tiebreak is played as the third inning. A game breaks down exactly as in tennis: 15 – 0, 30 – 0, 40 – 0, with the application of the decisive point in the event of a tie at 40 everywhere.
The ball must bounce in the opposite service box before being hit by the receiver. If the ball does not rebound in the square, it is fault. If the ball hits the net and bounces into the square, it is a let. If she touches the fence before the second bounce, she is at fault.
Once the ball is in play, all balls that pass the net must first bounce into the opposing court before hitting a wall. You can also hit the ball on the fly.
Players can hit the ball after it bounces off a wall to send it back to the opposing camp. The ball can only bounce on the ground once in each court, and it can only be hit once.
The surface used is sanded or semi-sanded, green, blue or ocher synthetic turf.
