“Our philosophy is friendship,” declares leading coach Labisa Palmera as he hands me a weird-looking solid racket with perforated holes for my first foray into padel.
The sport, reportedly the biggest growing in the UK, and also expanding in key holiday resorts due to demand from travellers.
While youngsters are picking up tennis rackets to play on public courts in the wake of the Wimbledon fortnight, more savvy sporting stars are planning to spend at least some of their summer break on the padel courts.
Spain is king in this upcoming game, a cross between tennis and squash invented in Mexico, but nearby Portugal is also recognising padel’s popularity.
So I’ve come to Pine Cliffs Luxury Collection Resort, an immense 72-hectare cliffside family-friendly enclave in the Algarve, awash with Moorish touches and Portuguese tiles and an architectural gem of an inner courtyard in the main hotel.
It offers everything from the prestigious Annabel Croft Tennis & Padel Academy, to a nine-hole golf course, state-of-the-art gym, award-winning spa, yoga, Pilates and, more importantly, a recently expanded padel facility.
This year, due to demand, one of the tennis courts has been adapted into three padel courts to bring its total to four, complete with glass back wall and metal fencing enclosures, perfect for trying this sport out with my Gen-Z daughter, Grace, to see how inter-generational it is.
Palmera, co-founder of the first padel club in Albufeira, recalls: “It’s been a huge phenomenon in Spain and 12 years ago it went crazy in Lisbon. Now, so many people, aged eight to 80, are playing padel and you don’t need many lessons.”
Not only is it good exercise, but padel is known for its sociability, given that so many generations play together. Ideal, then, for a family holiday.
Reported to be the fastest-growing racket sport in the world with more than 25 million active players in 110 countries, the Lawn Tennis Association recently revealed that participation on home turf more than trebled last year, with more than 400,000 players in Great Britain alone.
Former Wimbledon champion Andre Agassi was seen last year playing padel with David Beckham, while sporting superstars Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and singer Shakira…
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