Six months of padel: 158 FIP tournaments on five continents, 2.301 players on court

One hundred and fifty-eight tournaments in 181 days, for men’s and women’s, on five continents. The organisational machine of the International Padel Federation in the first six months of 2024 has produced record numbers. From the stars to the professionals players who dream of becoming champions, up to the NextGen who represent the present but above all the future of the discipline: the report by the FIP Research & Data Analysis Department paints a picture of the first six months of world padel.

NUMBERS In the first six months of the year, the International Padel Federation organised 158 tournaments in the three FIP circuits (Premier Padel, CUPRA FIP Tour and FIP Promises), of which 83 in the men’s category and 75 in the women’s one. Of the 158 tournaments staged worldwide, 71 of them were ‘combined’, with 12 men-only and 4 women-only tournaments. The 12 Premier Padel tournaments played so far (including the one in Genova, scheduled for this week) have all been ‘double draw’ – men and women – while there have been 102 CUPRA FIP Tour tournaments (55 men and 47 women) and 32 FIP Promises tournaments for younger players, equally divided between boys and girls. There were 22 host nations, with all five continents involved: 55% of the tournaments were held in Europe, 27% in America, 11% in Asia, 5% in Africa and 3% in Oceania. Spain and Italy are the countries with the most tournaments played: 26 each, followed by Chile (15) and Sweden (11).

PLAYERS The number of male and female athletes who participated in the CUPRA FIP Tour and Premier Padel tournaments in the first part of the season was 2.301, of which 1.619 were men (70%) and 682 were women (30%). Athletes from 60 nations from all continents (29 European countries, 14 Asia, 12 America, 4 Africa and one Oceania) participated. A total of 462 players took part in the Premier Padel circuit (291 men and 171 women), while in the CUPRA FIP Tour there were 2,157 (1,521 men and 636 women).

THE RECORD OF GENOVA The Genova Premier Padel P2 is the FIP tournament that in the first six months of 2024 has set an extraordinary record in terms of participants and ‘waiting list’: an impressive 354, of which 216 men and 138 women. No other professional tournament since the beginning of the year to date had exceeded 350. And that’s not all: the Genova Premier Padel P2 leads the list of the seven FIP tournaments (6 Premier and one CUPRA FIP Tour) that have surpassed the number of 300. In addition to the Italian one, we find the Rome Major, the FIP Rise Burriana, and then the P1 in Santiago, the Qatar Major, the P1 in Riyadh and the P1 in Mar del Plata in Argentina. In total, the International Padel Federation’s tournaments, according to data provided by the FIP Research & Data Analysis Department, registered over 10.500 entries.