FIP Platinum Sardegna, padel boom on the island: +400% courts in three years

The FIP Platinum Sardegna is the first of three prestigious tournaments in the top category of the CUPRA FIP Tour 2024 circuit – the other two in October in Menorca and in November in Mexico – and will be held in one of the recognized “homes” of this discipline in our country, the Tennis Club Cagliari, a club that has made history in padel in Italy. Last year, it was the stage for an extraordinary first edition that marked Fede Chingotto’s first high-level triumph in FIP circuits, on that occasion paired with Mike Yanguas. A success that gave an important boost to the career of the 27-year-old from Buenos Aires, partner of Ale Galan and currently ranked 4th in the world. The major tournaments held in the last 4 years on the “Island of Padel” have given a strong push to the spread of the discipline, which has grown at a considerable speed, following the trend of regions that have most rapidly increased the number of playing courts, practitioners, and clubs.

BOOM IN SARDINIA Since January 2021, the courts on the island have increased by 400%, a figure that clearly defines the padel boom in these parts. In Sardinia today there are 372 courts distributed across 157 sports facilities, some of which are “pure,” meaning dedicated only to padel. “In 65 Sardinian municipalities there is at least one padel court, and the population/court ratio is one for every 4,408 inhabitants, one of the lowest in Italy, considering that the national average is one for every 6,450 inhabitants,” observes Carlo Ferrara of the International Padel Federation’s Study Center. The provinces with the most courts are Sassari (158 courts and 64 facilities) and Cagliari (139/50). In southern Sardinia, there are 22 clubs with 40 courts; in the province of Nuoro, there are 13 clubs with a total of 21 courts, while in Oristano there are 14 courts across 8 clubs.

PADEL IN ITALY AND THE WORLD The first World Padel Report presented by the FIP during the general assembly in Asuncion, Paraguay, frames Italy as the second country in the world for the number of courts, players, and amateur practitioners. An enormous figure marking the historic overtaking of Argentina, one of the historical “homelands” of the discipline, thanks to its 9,340 courts scattered throughout the country – Lazio at the top with about 2,000 courts followed by Lombardy with 1,190 playing facilities – available to one and a half million practitioners and an army of members of the Italian Tennis and Padel Federation numbering 600,000. Worldwide, there are 130 countries where padel is played, a sport that has recorded the fastest growth rate in annual percentage of courts and practitioners in history – in Italy in the four-year period 2020-2023 it grew by 490% – and today it counts 30 million people who play around the world, among ‘pros,’ competitors, and amateurs.