Focus on…Sweden: 600,000 players, over 4,000 courts. And the Next Gen faces the world’s best young players

The second place of the men’s team at the last FIP Juniors World Padel Championships in Asunción (Paraguay) is not random. Neither is the growth of padel in Sweden, which will host the FIP Rise Betsson Sweden II and FIP Promises Sweden II this week.

Data from the FIP Research & Data Analysis Department show that Sweden is the fourth largest country in the world in terms of padel clubs and courts, the third largest in Europe after Spain and Italy: there are in fact more than 1,050 facilities (of which 230 are affiliated to the Swedish Padel Federation) and 4,200 courts to play on, with a ratio of one court for every 2,500 inhabitants, the second largest country in the world behind only Andorra (one court for every 2,350 inhabitants).

In Sweden, there are an estimated 600,000 amateurs players, 5,300 of whom – according to data from the Swedish Padel Federation – have professional licences (67% men, 33% women) and 800 young people. Last year, as many as six tournaments of the CUPRA FIP Tour circuit were played in Sweden, all in the Rise category, including one for women, in which a total of 99 Swedish players on court. On social media, there are approximately 2 million Swedish padel fans. A boom that has no limits.