Focus on…Lithuania: padel is growing. Federation celebrates 10 years since its foundation

This week, the CUPRA FIP Tour makes a stop in Lithuania with the FIP Rise in Kaunas. Lithuania is, in recent years, the Central and Eastern European nation where padel is growing the most. This is due to the contribution of the activities of the Lietuvos Padelio Federacija, which celebrates its 10th anniversary this year (it was founded in 2014 and, after two years, became part of the International Padel Federation) and has been participating in all international and continental competitions including juniors and seniors ones for years. Currently, in the Baltic country there are about 30 clubs (12 of which are affiliated with the Lithuanian federation) and more than 110 courts where padel can be played, spread over the different counties, especially those of Vilnius, Kaunas and Klaipeda.

There are 1,150 professionally licensed players, but there are also tens of thousands of amateur players in the country. The best Lithuanian players participate in international tournaments of the CUPRA FIP Tour (in 2023 there were 36, 27 men and 9 women), with Lithuania hosting three CUPRA FIP Tour tournaments, all in the city of Kaunas (men’s and women’s FIP Promotion in February, men’s FIP Rise in November). The players with the highest ranking in the men’s ranking (No. 740) and who are registered for FIP Rise are Nojus Poska and Skirmantas Macinskas, who will play with their respective teammates Matas Poska and Simonas Zukauskas.