Focus on…Liguria. Boom in four years and the first Premier Padel tournament in Genova

A growth of over 500% in just four years. The amazing fact of Liguria – a region in the north of Italy – is the journey from 2020 to 2024, during which the number of padel courts throughout the region has risen from 31 to 196, including 80 in Genova, a city that makes its debut on the Premier Padel circuit this week with the P2 being held in the Valletta Cambiaso park. The growing popularity of padel in the region confirms the analysis of the FIP World Padel Report, presented during the last General Assembly of the International Padel Federation in Asunción: Italy is the second largest nation in the world, after Spain, in terms of number of padel facilities, courts and players. And next to the booms of Lazio and Rome – absolute protagonists with almost 2,000 courts – even smaller realities like the Ligurian one confirm the enthusiasm for padel, certified precisely by the inclusion of Genova in the most important international circuit.

In addition to Genova, as shown by the data of the FIP Research & Data Analysis Department, in the other provinces of the region padel is also one of the sports with the greatest growth in the last four years: in Imperia there are now 45 courts dedicated to padel, with a rate of 940 inhabitants per court, one of the lowest in the world; followed by La Spezia with 32 and Savona with 39. The percentage increase in the number of courts is also matched by that of facilities: in this case the regional leap has been 150%, again in four years, with 95 clubs now active.

In Valletta Cambiaso, another suggestive scenario for the best athletes of the FIP ranking, the 49th international tournament (of which 33 “combined”) of the FIP circuits played in Italy –among the 43 of the CUPRA FIP Tour and the 6 Premier Padel – is staged, and it is the first in the region of Liguria. A special venue for the mid-season event, which has a total of 24 stages plus the Finals to be held in December in Barcelona. The current tournament in Genova is the second (consecutive) of the three planned in Italy: after the Major in Rome last month, the third will be the Milan P1 in early December, the last stage before the Finals. The most representative player of the Liguria region is certainly the Genovese player Riccardo Sinicropi, born in 1990 and number 138 in the FIP ranking, winner of three tournaments of the CUPRA FIP Tour circuit. Together with his current partner Lorenzo Di Giovanni, he is in the tournament’s main draw, as he was at the BNL Italy Major Premier Padel in Rome.