In Rome, the best of world padel and the historic debut of women

The best of world padel and, for the first time in Premier Padel history, women’s padel as well. The BNL Italy Major Premier Padel will be an unprecedented show. From Saturday 8th, when the qualifiers start, to Sunday 16th July, nine days of absolute show at the Foro Italico: Rome will be the center of the padel world. Men’s 56-pair main draw, women’s 48-pair main draw, with seven courts (including the Centre Court) ready to host a highly anticipated event that restarts from the 6,500 spectators of the May 2022 final won by Galan and Lebron on the Grand Stand Arena. And it is in Rome that the dream duo will come back after the injury that kept Lebron off the court. Rome is one of the four most important tournaments in the world, along with Doha, Paris and Monterrey, and the first of two Premier tournaments scheduled in Italy: the other will be the Premier Padel P1 in Milan.

“I would like to thank the Italian tennis and padel federation and their president Binaghi, Sport e Salute with president Cozzoli and ceo Diego Nepi Molineris”, said FIP president Luigi Carraro, “Also this year both organizations are really organizing an event that will be extraordinary. In 2022 Rome tournament wrote the history of our sport: this year Rome tournament opens a new era. Because it will be the first combined tournament of the history, so we will have all the best players. It’s the first time, it’s something we’ve worked on so much: people were missing the women and the women missed coming to play in Rome. All the players, men and women, are excited to come. Rome tournament has another peculiarity, nowadays it is the tournament with the highest prize money in the history of the padel world, 875,000 euros in total. Something that was unthinkable until recently. We are going to the most beautiful locations in the world, we did eight tournaments last year, this year we will probably do nine, next year we start the full schedule with 24 tournaments. Our tournaments are broadcast in 187 countries: the Champions League, in football, in 205. It is a great satisfaction for us, padel is a unique promotion tool. Padel is growing a lot and all over the world, just on Sunday we achieved the first historic participation of our discipline in an event organized by an Olympic institution, the European Games. Italy and world padel achieved extraordinary and fantastic results, 128 players from 24 nations, and we distributed nine medals: five to Spain, three to Italy and one to Portugal. Today there are no longer just Spain and Argentina: I would like to congratulate the Italian Federation, because Italy is the country where padel grows the most and the best. Because growth is accompanied by structure, at all levels. The Italian federation for us is a model that we try to replicate and export, because I can tell you that if other countries do the same work that has been done in Italy, I can assure you that the growth of padel is destined not only to never end, but to always go on”.

“The tournament is coming to the Centre Court for the first time and we’ll have a new title sponsor, BNL, as well as growing players and players who are beginning to establish themselves”, said Fitp president, Angelo Binaghi, “In Italy, padel knows no limits or boundaries and we moved from the promotion to the technical development phase, applying to padel the system that has made us famous in tennis. We have involved middle and high schools with 20,000 students, recognized 405 new certified padel schools, created 15 technical centers where more than a thousand young people are followed. And we are beginning to finance the activities of our best youngers. Regarding the tournament the first feedback is great, the expectation is growing and and so is the pre-sale: it has increased by 70 percent year-on-year, we have sold more than 10,000 tickets. Last year the size of the success was totally unexpected, even we did not expect such a great success of the public, this year we naturally aim to exceed it. We thank the Department for Sports, which supports us in organizing this event, and Luigi Carraro and Fip who have given the federation and the country this great opportunity.” Binaghi also announced the wild cards: among men Cremona-Cassetta, Sinicropi-Graziotti, Di Giovanni-Cattaneo, and Jensen-Jensen; among women Tommasi-Baldi and Ligotti-Castro Vilela.

“We are thrilled to return to Rome for the second Major of the Premier Padel season in this beautiful city,” said Ziad Hammoud, Premier Padel Board member. “It is also a historic moment because for the first time Premier Padel will include the men’s and women’s draw, for a total of 134 matches played during the tournament, a number never seen before. This will lead to a record attendance number, improving last year’s already impressive figure of 22,500. We are grateful for the support of our partners, sponsors and players who make the tournament the first in a long line to continue to grow padel worldwide”.

In one year, the growth has been astonishing. “In 2022 we defined the tournament as a bet: it is a bet that today, I can say, we have won, or rather overachieved – the words of the president Sport e Salute, Vito Cozzoli -. Beyond the records, Rome event was the most beautiful on the world tour. Not only for the location of the Foro Italico, which is unique in the world, but above all for the context, passion and enthusiasm of the public, which was extraordinary and pushed the players’ performances. Credits give us pleasure, for Sport e Salute they are the stimulus to do even more: the Rome Major was an unthinkable dream that has instead come true”.

The Foro Italico Park will be the exceptional stage in an extraordinary town. “A big thank you for the ambition that Biraghi, Carraro and Sport e Salute are showing,” said Alessandro Onorato, Councillor for Sport, Tourism, Fashion and Major Events of Roma Capitale, “It helps this city grow further. From our side there is total positive complicity and constant collaboration, so that these events are a flywheel for the city and bring people closer to sports practice. Last year we were talking about padel-mania, this year we can talk about padel-certainty: we have impressive numbers, in Rome there is 20 percent of the average number of practitioners in whole Italy. And over 300 clubs have padel courts. o have the tournament in July will also allow us to de-seasonalize tourist flows”.

 Numbers, those of padel in Lazio, confirmed by the Region’s Sports Councillor, Elena Palazzo: “Padel is the real driving force in Lazio, a region where there are about 545 facilities and 1,800 courts. It makes us realize how passionate Lazio citizens are about this sport, which is accessible to all, funny and fast. The Federation did well to recognize padel in the same way as tennis: it was really important. This movement and especially this edition that we are inaugurating today is really very beautiful, because of the ‘combined’ event and an increasingly large and passionate audience. It reminds us that the show of competitive sports does not include distinctions”.