Doha: Premier Padel, the official global padel tour, governed by International Padel Federation (FIP) and backed by the Professional Padel Association (PPA) and Qatar Sports Investments (QSI) yesterday announced the latest addition to the ‘P1’ tournament calendar - Madrid, Spain.
The Madrid Premier Padel P1 will be the first P1 event to be held in Europe and will take place from August 1 to 6 at the WiZink Center as the rapidly growing tour comes to the biggest padel market in the world.
The annual tournament will be hosted in Madrid under a multi-year deal.
The Qualifiers will take place on July 30 and 31, with the main draw starting at their conclusion.
The Madrid event becomes the second P1, category two tournament to be announced after the Argentina Premier Padel P1 was unveiled earlier this year.
Premier Padel is the only tour to offer official ranking points to players and P1 tournaments will earn the winners 1000 points, together with record prize money, in keeping with all P1 events.
Not too many countries can match the passion for padel that Spain has. The country has almost 6 million padel participants, more than 14,000 padel courts and over 1,000 officially registered padel clubs situated across the length and breadth of Spain.
Premier Padel will host at least 10 new tournaments in 2022 – including four category one “Major” events.
The first major – the Ooredoo Qatar Premier Padel Major – took place in Doha in March. The second, the Italy Premier Padel Major at the Foro Italico concluded a fortnight ago.
The other category one tournaments are the Paris Premier Padel Major at Stade Roland-Garros taking place from July 11-17, and the Mexico Premier Padel Major at the Club Sonoma en Monterrey, México from November 28 to December 4. The Argentina Premier Padel P1 takes place from August 8- 14.
FIP President Luigi Carraro said: “We are very proud to bring Premier Padel to Spain – the spiritual home of padel. The love and passion the country has for padel is for all to see. We know Spanish padel fans will support the P1 tournament in their numbers. Only a fortnight ago we attracted record crowds at the Foro Italico in Rome, and I’m sure we will also create a special atmosphere at the WiZink Center in August.”
The Board of Directors of the PPA said:“This deal starts an amazing new chapter for padel in our sport’s most popular country. The PPA is delighted at the future that is being built for the sport under the Premier Padel tour, with the players at the forefront of everything that is done. The PPA massively looks forward to the first P1 event in Europe and we are sure the WiZink Centerin Madrid will be a worthy venue for the occasion. This event will be spectacular for the players, fans and all padel lovers.”
The Madrid Premier Padel P1 will be broadcast around the world on the likes of ESPN (South America, Central America, Mexico and Caribbean), Sky Sports (Italy, UK, Ireland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland), beIN Sports (MENA, South East Asia, Australia, New Zealand, France, Turkey), Viaplay (Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Iceland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and the Netherlands), SuperSport (Sub-Saharan Africa), Arena (Czech & Slovak), Cosmote (Greece) and many more to be announced in due course.
