When Was Padel Invented? Origins, History & How It Reached the UK
By Gary, founder of RacketRise. Covering padel and pickleball across the UK.
Last Updated: August 2026
Quick Summary
- Padel was invented in 1969 by Enrique Corcuera at his home in Acapulco, Mexico — the walls were originally there to keep the ball out of the neighbours' gardens
- Spain made it a mass sport after Alfonso de Hohenlohe built the first Spanish courts at the Marbella Club in 1974; Argentina followed and boomed
- The UK arrived late but fast — 68 courts when the LTA took over governance in 2019, 1,000+ courts and 400,000+ players by 2025
- Find a court near you — use the RacketRise Court Finder to search padel venues across the UK
Padel is the rare sport whose defining feature — the walls — exists because of a property boundary. If Enrique Corcuera's Acapulco garden had been bigger, the fastest-growing racket sport in Europe might never have existed. Here's the full story, from one improvised court in Mexico to your local leisure park.
Quick Answer: Padel was invented in 1969 by Enrique Corcuera, a Mexican businessman, at his home in Acapulco. Short on space, he built a court roughly 20m × 10m enclosed by walls and wire fencing — and rather than treating balls off the walls as dead, he played them. His friend Alfonso de Hohenlohe took the game to Spain in 1974, building courts at the Marbella Club; Julio Menditengui carried it to Argentina. Spain and Argentina turned it into a mass-participation sport, and the UK joined the boom from 2019, when the LTA took on governance with 68 courts nationwide — a figure that passed 1,000 by mid-2025.
Acapulco, 1969: The Accidental Invention
Enrique Corcuera wanted a racket court at his Acapulco home. What he had was a plot roughly 20 metres by 10 — too small for tennis — bounded by walls and his neighbours' property. So he built the court he could fit: solid back walls, fencing along the sides, a net across the middle.
The crucial decision was what to do when the ball hit the walls. Corcuera didn't call it out — he played it. That single choice created a new sport rather than a cramped version of an old one. Rallies lasted longer, positioning mattered more than power, and the game rewarded guile over a big serve — everything that still defines padel today, right down to why the underarm serve and wall play work the way they do.
He called it "paddle" after the paddle-tennis family of games that partly inspired it; Spanish speakers wrote it the way they said it, and pádel was born. The dimensions of Corcuera's improvised garden court — 20m × 10m — remain the official padel court size more than half a century later.
What Came Before: Padel's Family Tree
Padel didn't appear from nothing. By the 1960s there was already a family of small-court racket games in circulation — paddle tennis (played since the early 20th century in the US), platform tennis (the American winter game with screens the ball can be played off), and various beach and fronton games popular in Mexico and Spain.
Corcuera's genius was the combination: tennis scoring, a small doubles-only court, solid bats instead of strung rackets, and — from platform tennis's screens, whether he knew it or not — the idea that the enclosure is part of the game. If you're curious how the cousins differ today, see padel vs tennis, padel vs squash and padel vs pickleball.
Marbella and the Spanish Explosion
Padel would have stayed a curiosity of one Acapulco garden without Corcuera's social circle. His friend Alfonso de Hohenlohe — the hotelier behind the Marbella Club on Spain's Costa del Sol — played the game on a visit, saw its potential, and in 1974 built courts at his hotel back home.
Marbella was exactly the right launchpad. The club's wealthy, well-connected clientele picked the game up on holiday and wanted courts of their own; tennis clubs across Spain began adding them. From there the sport did what it still does everywhere: spread through word of mouth, because a beginner can enjoy their first session and four people share the cost of one small court.
Half a century on, padel is Spain's second most-played sport after football, with over 20,000 courts. Spanish professionalisation — leagues, academies, and eventually the professional tours — built the elite layer on top.
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Argentina: The Other Superpower
The third man in padel's origin story is Julio Menditengui, another friend of Corcuera's, who took the game to Argentina in the mid-1970s. It found the same social soil as in Spain and grew even faster relative to population — millions of Argentinians play, and Argentina has supplied a huge share of the world's professional players ever since.
Spain and Argentina between them explain why the professional game looks the way it does: the two countries dominated the International Padel Federation (founded 1991) era, the first world championships in 1992, and the modern Premier Padel tour — which reaches London in 2026.
Timeline: Key Dates in Padel History
| Year | What happened |
|---|---|
| 1969 | Enrique Corcuera builds the first padel court at his Acapulco home |
| 1974 | Alfonso de Hohenlohe builds Spain's first courts at the Marbella Club |
| Mid-1970s | Julio Menditengui introduces padel to Argentina |
| 1991 | International Padel Federation (FIP) founded |
| 1992 | First Padel World Championship held |
| 2000s | Spain passes thousands of courts; padel becomes a mainstream club sport |
| 2019 | The LTA takes on governance of padel in Great Britain — 68 courts nationwide |
| 2020s | The European boom: Italy, Sweden, the Netherlands, the Gulf — and the UK |
| 2025 | Great Britain passes 1,000 courts across 325 venues; LTA reports 400,000+ players |
| 2026 | London hosts its first Premier Padel P1 event |
How Padel Reached the UK
Britain was late. While Spain built its twenty-thousandth court, the UK had a scattering of them at private clubs and a sport with no clear governing home. The modern era starts in 2019, when the Lawn Tennis Association took on governance of padel — at which point there were just 68 courts in the whole country.
What followed is the steepest growth curve of any UK racket sport. By July 2025 Great Britain passed 1,000 courts across 325 venues, with the LTA projecting 1,300+ by the end of 2026 and reporting over 400,000 people playing. Dedicated operators — Game4Padel, Pure Padel, Rocket Padel, Padium and others — are building multi-court venues at retail parks and city sites, while LTA-affiliated tennis clubs add courts alongside existing facilities. The full picture is in our UK padel growth report and padel statistics round-up.
The reasons it took off here are the same ones that worked in Marbella in 1974: it's sociable, it's doubles, it's cheap per person, and a complete beginner has fun in their first hour. Corcuera's garden compromise turned out to be a formula.
If the history has you curious, the practical next steps are easy: read What Is Padel?, learn the rules, and find a court near you.
Frequently Asked Questions
When was padel invented?
Padel was invented in 1969 in Acapulco, Mexico, by Enrique Corcuera. He built a walled court roughly 20m × 10m at his home — the walls were partly there to stop balls reaching the neighbours — and chose to play the ball off them, creating the sport's defining feature.
Who invented padel?
Enrique Corcuera, a Mexican businessman. His friend Alfonso de Hohenlohe took the game to Spain in 1974 via the Marbella Club, and Julio Menditengui introduced it to Argentina — the two countries that made it a mass sport.
Where does the name padel come from?
It's a hispanicised spelling of the English "paddle", from the paddle-tennis family of games that influenced Corcuera's court. English re-imported the Spanish spelling to distinguish the sport from paddle tennis and platform tennis.
When did padel come to the UK?
The modern era starts in 2019, when the LTA took on governance with just 68 courts nationwide. By July 2025 Great Britain had passed 1,000 courts across 325 venues, with over 400,000 people playing.
Is padel older than pickleball?
No — pickleball is four years older (1965 vs 1969). Both spent decades as regional games before booming internationally in the 2020s.
Why is padel so big in Spain?
Spain got the sport early — Marbella, 1974 — and it spread through clubs as a sociable, beginner-friendly doubles game. It's now Spain's second most-played sport after football, with over 20,000 courts.
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