Focus on…Turkiye. Padel is starting to grow

The CUPRA FIP Tour this week moves to Turkiye, with the FIP Promotion in Antalya, a tourist city with more than 2.5 million inhabitants in the south of the country. Padel is a sport that has also arrived in Turkiye a few years ago, spreading first in hotels and resorts as a sporting attraction for tourists, but now also played with increasing frequency in clubs. In Turkey, according to estimates by the FIP Research & Data Analysis Department, there are around 15 clubs and 30 courts where padel can be played, most of them distributed in the province of Antalya.

Padel in Turkey is governed by the Turkiye Padel Association (through the Padel Istanbul Sports Club Association), which was founded in 2019 and became a member of the International Padel Federation in 2021. The aim is to develop and spread padel throughout the nation, especially among young people: in April, there was a meeting between the federation and the director general of the Ministry of Youth and Sports, a padel coach training was organised, and the first referee meeting is scheduled to take place at the FIP Promotion in Antalya.

The one in Antalya is the third CUPRA FIP Tour tournament to be played in Turkey: the first was the FIP Rise Turkey in October 2022, in Manavgat, with the victory of the Italian-Spanish pair formed by Nicolas Suescun and Alvaro Melendez. In October 2023, on the other hand, it was France’s Thomas Leygue and Spain’s Ferran Insa who raised the trophy in Antalya. There are 16 Turkish players in the FIP ranking, all of them over 1,000th, but with a great desire to grow, like the whole local movement.