Is Everyone Playing Padel Without Us?

On a current night, a padel membership right here was full, as pals performed beneath floodlights.

One devotee, Patricio Guzman, began throughout the pandemic. Mr. Guzman, 38, by no means performed tennis, however now performs padel 4 instances every week — generally 5, if he competes in a match.

“I’m addicted to it,” he stated.

Several gamers had by no means heard of pickleball. Three brothers of their 50s, who gathered to attempt padel collectively for the primary time, toweled off after a match. “It’s like tennis?” Jorge-Andrés Quevedo requested.

A day later, on the Chile Padel Academy throughout city, Tomás Bachmann, the top of Pickleball Chile, sipped a sports activities drink after successful a match. Mr. Bachmann, 34, found pickleball from his brother, who used to dwell in North Carolina. He determined to attempt to carry the game to Chile about two years in the past.

But to this point, he has offered solely about 30 nets and 80 paddles. A bunch chat for fans in Santiago, a metropolis of just about seven million folks, has about 85 members.

“I don’t see a boom with pickleball here,” stated Sebastián Varela, a Chilean journalist and founding father of Clay, a global tennis journal. “Why would we need this pickleball thing if we are having so much fun with padel?”

Last yr, about 9 million Americans performed pickleball, stated Stu Upson, the chief govt of USA Pickleball. That’s virtually double the gamers of the yr earlier than. A spokeswoman for USA Pickleball stated the group counted over 45,000 courts within the nation, which doesn’t embody the driveways or the taped-over tennis and basketball courts, the place the sport thrives.