CUPRA FIP Tour story Growth in five years: all the numbers of the FIP circuit

It is the week of the CUPRA FIP Finals, the event that in Bourg en Bresse (France) closes the 2024 season of the International Padel Federation circuit. A circuit that was born in 2019 – and which from 2020 is called the CUPRA FIP Tour – and whose aim was to ensure that padel continued its worldwide growth and, for the players, to be able to win points in the international ranking. The CUPRA FIP Tour has grown from five to 115 tournaments in five years.

Originally there were three categories, based on prize money, scores and player ranking, in order of importance: Star, Rise and Promotion, to which Gold and Platinum were added in later years. In 2019, the circuit took place over five stages, of which only one was ‘combined’, the FIP Star in Milano. 2020 was the circuit’s real start-up year, with 14 stages of which 10 combined, spread over six countries on four different continents (Europe, Asia, Africa and America). It was an absolute success in light of, among other things, the global health emergency of that year. At the end of 2020, the first CUPRA FIP Finals in history were held in Cagliari (Italy) from 16 to 20 December (same location again in 2021) and pairs from 16 countries from all over the world registered.

In the following years, as noted by FIP Research & Data Analysis Department, the growth of this circuit was impressive: in 2021, 48 tournaments were played, of which 25 combined in 20 host countries; in 2022, there were 77 tournaments, of which 21 combined (22 host nations); and, in 2023, 74 tournaments, of which 34 combined (26 nations). In 2024 there was a boom, with 115 tournaments including the Bourg en Bresse Finals (75 combined) spread across 27 organising countries.

ORGANISATIONAL NUMBERS Since the CUPRA FIP Tour began, 497 tournaments have been held, of which 302 in the men’s and 195 in the women’s category. 56% of the tournaments were FIP Rise category, 23% FIP promotion, 13% FIP Star, 4% FIP Gold and the remaining 4% divided equally between FIP Platinum and FIP Finals. In recent years, the circuit has visited as many as 188 locations spread over 42 countries on all five continents.

Europe was the continent that organised the most tournaments (63.7%), followed by America (almost 20%), Asia (10%), Africa (more than 5%) and a small share from Oceania (1.2%). On the podium of organising countries is Spain (23%), followed by Italy (16.6%) and in third place the Netherlands (6.2%); in fourth place is the first non-European country, Mexico (5.8%), followed by Chile, Egypt and Brazil.