Thursday, 25th July 2024 will forever remain historic in the sporting archives of Uganda.
On the day, a new sport, Padel was officially introduced in the country.
The launch took place in one of the four glass courts at the newly constructed Herman pedal center in Nsambya, a suburb confine of Uganda’s capital city, Kampala.
Padel joins the racket sports family in Uganda that has Tennis (Lawn), Badminton, Squash and Table Tennis.
Henrik Andersen from Denmark, Erik Seyfarth, a Norwegian national and Uganda’s famous Tennis player Simon Ayella confidently addressed the keen sports journalists in a media inter-face coordinated by sports administrator Sula Kamoga.
This is the first padel center in Uganda. We welcome people from all walks of life to socialize, have fun and exercise by playing the pedal sport. This is the fastest growing sport in the world. We have plans to expand it to rest of the countryside in Uganda after establishing firm roots in Kampala. We want to sky-rocket this sport. This sport has a huge potential to spread with the support of the media and more involvement of the players. In the near future, we shall also officially register with the National Council of Sports (NCS) to become a fully association.
Henrik Andersen, CEO Herman Padel center
Padel is a combination of Squash and Tennis. Like in Squash, it has a boundary wall (glass and wire mesh) with a net, special racket and a net in-between. It was invented in 1969 in Mexico. The game is very popular in Spain and second popular sport after football. We are inviting children for free training clinics.
Erik Seyfarth, Sports Director Herman Padel Center
Uganda Tennis player Simon Ayella envisions a bright future for this sport given its simplicity to learn.
Padel thrives through all the Racket sports. It is a very simple game to learn to learn and with continuous practice, one can easily become a professional or a master. I thank the investors for this initiative as I call upon all the racket sport players to come and join Pedal.
Simon Ayella, Tennis and Padel player
Management is planning of initiating training clinics for young children and other interested people in this sport, starting with the Nsambya neighborhood.
The Padel sport is among the games planned for the next Olympic Games in Los Angeles, United States of America (USA) come 2028.
Journalists had a guided tour around the entire facility and had a rare feel of the rackets as they played demonstration and exhibition games.
About Padel Sport:
Padel is also sometimes called padel tennis, is a racket sport of Mexican origin, typically played in doubles on an enclosed court slightly smaller than a doubles tennis court.
Although padel shares the same scoring system as tennis, the rules, strokes, and technique are different.
The balls used are similar but with a little less pressure.
The main differences are that the court has walls and the balls can be played off them in a similar way as in the game of squash and that solid, stringless bats are used. The height of the ball being served must be at or below the waist level.
As of 2023, according to the International Padel Federation (FIP) there are more than 25 million active players in more than 90 countries.
Padel is worth about €2bn a year and growing fast. The Padel World Championship is held every second year since 1992, with Argentina or Spain reaching the final in every competition.
Rules of the game:
- Players: Usually play doubles on a 10 by 20 metre court (32′ 10″ by 65′ 7″) Singles use a 6 by 20 metre (19′ 8″ by 65′ 7″) court instead.
- Serves: Serves are always underhand and hit below waist level. Balls that hit the walls around the court after bouncing on the ground are still in play.
- Balls: Padel balls are required in official matches; these are similar to tennis balls but are slightly smaller. Padel is usually played casually with regular tennis balls.
- Rackets: Padel rackets are made of a composite material without strings. The hitting surface is perforated. The racket is similar to the one used in platform tennis but has its own specifications.
- Court: The court has a floor made of concrete, plastic or artificial grass. It is designed similarly to a tennis court, only smaller — measuring 10×20 m, with a 0.88m (34.6 inches) high net in the middle. The court is surrounded by 4 metre-high walls made of glass or brick, or a fence when outside.
Scoring:
Padel follows the same scoring as the tennis scoring system with the following exception:
- In the 2020 season, the World Padel Tour introduced the “Gold Point” or “Golden Point”, a new scoring method for the main tournaments (Master Final, Master, Open and Challenger) organized by the Tour. This method of scoring has been widely adopted throughout non-professional tournaments as well.
Court:
The padel rules state that the playing field should be a rectangle 10 metres (32 ft 10 in) wide (back wall) and 20 metres (65 ft 7 in) long (side wall) (with a 0.5% tolerance), enclosed by walls.
At the middle of the playing field there will be a net dividing the court in two, the net has a maximum height of 88 cm in the center raising to 92 centimetres (36 in) at sides (with a 0.5 centimetres (1⁄5 in) tolerance).
The superstructure is made from connecting 3m high x 2m wide panels, with an additional 1m mesh height over the glass back walls (10m walls).
This additional 1m height is continued for 2m from each corner over the side walls also. This means that the back walls and service corners are actually 4m in height, with the remaining side walls are 3m in height.
Glass panels make up the back walls and service side walls (closest 2 side panels to back walls), whilst metal mesh panels occupy the sides.
The service lines are placed 3 metres (9 ft 10 in) before the back wall and there will be also another line in middle that divides the central rectangle in half.
All lines have a 5-centimetre (2 in) width and should be clearly visible.
The minimum height between the playing field and an obstacle (e.g. the ceiling) is 6 metres (19 ft 8 in).
*Additional information from Wikipedia
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