Proceed With Caution

El Remate #33 | What's hot in 🇺🇸 & 🌎 padel | May 26 - June 2, 2026

Bienvenidos a El Remate! I’m Aris, a padel-obsessed Missourian who spent two years living in Argentina and Spain to deeply understand the sport’s strategy, culture, and business. I’ve played and competed across 3 continents and 12 countries, and recently started documenting my journey on Instagram.

Each week, I curate what matters in padel: new US club openings, technique tips, my takes on international headlines and pro drama, plus insider knowledge from the global circuit. Subscribe for weekly updates! 📧

This last week, I was in Barcelona for the Padel World Summit (which was, I think, the first time I've seen the global supply chain in one space). Court builders, AI cameras, booking software, ball re-pressurizers, and everything in-between. There’s clearly a lot of hype around the sport, with the ecosystem filling in fast. The event boasted 7,208 professional attendees (up 20% vs. 2025), and 140 exhibitors from 30+ countries.

Also, huge thanks to my friends Jamie & Charlie at World Padel Network & Vibra Travel (respectively) for hosting a kickass event at the renowned Bela Center! Anyway, onward with the weekly rundown.

🔍 Topics we’ll cover this week

The 2026 Playtomic Global Padel Report just dropped, but proceed with caution.

Meanwhile, the Eastern Time Zone is getting showered with fresh courts, while American youth finally hop in on the action. And the No. 1s have their backs against the wall headed into Rome.

Also in this issue:
— Diligencing America’s true padel appetite
— Your backhand gets therapy
— Pro loopholes get exposed
— European soccer’s padel love affair
— Is padel elitist?

…and plenty more. Seguimos!

🇺🇸 Court Openings

Coming Soon

• DUS Padel is bringing a premium, wellness-focused approach to West Palm Beach, FL with a new 26,000-square-foot indoor facility. The club will feature five courts, an organic café, recovery amenities including saunas and cold plunges, and the first official NOX Pro Shop in the US. The founders are positioning it as a true “third place” where members can play, recover, work, socialize, and attend events under one roof. Construction is underway!

  

• Aside from clubs, we’ve seen padel pop up in US hotels, country clubs, residences, and now… offices! One of Manhattan’s most ambitious developments is set to include the only regulation-size padel court inside an office building. The planned 46-story, 850,000-square-foot tower will be just one block from Grand Central. The padel court will be part of a luxury wellness center featuring a tenant-only fitness club and spa-quality locker rooms. The project’s opening timeline has not yet been announced.

  

Now Open

• In metro Miami, North Bay Village, FL is opening the Brent W. Latham Community Center this Thursday. Developed in partnership with the Argentine Football Association, the site includes two padel courts alongside four pickleball courts, a 11v11 soccer field, and several multi-purpose athletic zones.

  

• Club Padel Newtown just opened outside Cincinnati in Newtown, OH, marking the metro area’s first dedicated outdoor padel facility in a region otherwise dominated by indoor and hybrid padel-pickleball setups. The club features four panoramic outdoor courts, alongside a full clubhouse with locker rooms, lounge space, and a pro shop. The club is rolling out leagues, clinics, junior programs, and tournaments, with booking already live via Playtomic.

  

Additional Club Buzz 🐝

• SLC Padel Club owner Pedro Bautista brought padel directly to local K-8 recess periods, introducing hundreds of kids to the sport.

• A proposed temporary padel court at Rolling Hills Country Club has been pulled into the broader pickleball noise litigation saga in Wilton, CT, triggering a required public hearing as officials move to avoid inconsistent treatment across similar racquet-sport cases.

• Padel Pals in Mesa, AZ is hosting an indoor, climate-controlled summer camp for children ages 6-12.

📈 Up Your Game 

The Backhand: From Weakness to Weapon

Not sure about y’all, but my backhand sucks, and this 10-minute video was a game-changer. I (desperately) took some detailed notes, breaking it down into four areas where players often struggle:

• Mistake #1: You’re leading with the grip

  • Tennis players especially, listen up! Most players prepare the backhand by putting the face of the racket toward the side fence instead of pointing it at the net. As a result, you end up generating power with your wrist instead of your arm… which means inconsistency, unintentional slice, and if you keep it up long enough, a nasty wrist injury.

    • The fix: racket face toward the net from the start, wrist fully locked, push forward with your arm and shoulder. (The wrist is not invited to this party.)

• Mistake #2: You’re lifting too early

  • After contact, the racket goes up too fast instead of following through in the direction of the net. The shot bleeds pace, picks up unwanted topspin, and lands shorter than you intended (aka, right in your opponent’s wheelhouse).

    • The fix: imagine your racket traveling along the white net tape after contact. Push forward (not upward).

• Mistake #3: Your feet are square

  • Hitting with both feet on the same line robs you of body weight transfer. You end up muscling the ball with your arm alone, which is both weak and imprecise.

    • The fix: left foot back (for righties), body slightly open. That hip rotation is where your power actually lives.

• Mistake #4: Your racket preparation height is wrong

  • Preparing above ball level creates slice, while preparing below it creates topspin. Neither is what you want on a clean backhand drive.

    • The fix: You want the racket meeting the ball at the same height it arrives (i.e., flat contact, full control). When executed correctly, the ball jumps off the racket with less effort and goes exactly where you wanted it.

While you can get away with these mistakes at low speed, the faster the ball comes, the more your backhand weaknesses are exposed. As a final note, start with mistake #1; the others are downstream of it. Suerte che!

🌍 International Happenings  

Wake Up Bro, We Just Got More Global Data! Here’s My Blunt Take.

So the 2026 Playtomic Global Padel Report (co-produced with my former employer Strategy&) dropped this week (which you can access here). If you follow this space, reading this is a must, but please take everything with a grain of salt! Many investors last year were hyper-skeptic on a few stats, notably the “92% player retention” metric.

Globally, the headline numbers include nearly 5,000 new clubs and 8,000 new courts added in 2025, bringing 🌎 totals to 20,900+ clubs, 58,300 courts, and 19.4 million players. 🇺🇸 is classified as a “Diamond in the Rough” (i.e., early stage, high potential, adding 250 clubs and 330 courts in 2025).

Here’s where I get cautious, especially given my international playing POV. The report heavily pushes a “Third Space” thesis (e.g., saunas, cold plunges, recovery zones). To me, that model makes sense for a narrow slice of operators. Sure, if you’re in a cosmopolitan (semi-)urban center with 3-4 courts and high rent, stacking amenities is a survival mechanism. But I feel like we’re like we’re using this as a universal blueprint nationwide, which can get hella misleading.

I came across a great Reddit thread this week, debating whether padel clubs are over-indexing on wellness. The top-voted comment was: “The main driver is always community, not amenities… My coach is there… they run 24 leagues… [and] that club just becomes your second home.” Community and programming seem to be where the money is, much more so than cold plunges.

• Another idea-inducing comment I read: someone mentioned their club just has a pool table. People stick around, grab a beer / smoothie, and play a game or three after their match. I love this idea because it’s low cost, there’s no operational complexity, it doesn’t take up much space, and it builds the kind of community culture many US clubs are desperately missing.

To me, while there’s 100% a need for luxury padel, most US clubs would be better off prioritizing tight leagues, tournaments, and beginner clinics at prices people can afford to play 3x+ a week to actually get good, rather than chasing a “wellness” arms race that inflates prices, shrinks the addressable market, and slows adoption… especially amid a declining US consumer market.

Lastly, I’ll also flag that per the report, the US leads the global market pricing-wise at “€92 per average booking” (which seems to suggest per court reservation, not per-player). Virtually every American club runs on a membership model, meaning players are paying a fixed monthly fee on top of court fees. This isn’t broken down in a per-session booking figure. To me, the real all-in cost for a court reservation in the US seems substantially higher than €92 suggests. In mature markets like Spain and Italy, membership models are rare, and clubs compete openly on court price + quality alone. That’s a very different business model, so broadly comparing these booking prices across countries without providing the methodology raises more questions than answers.

Overall, the direction is right and there’s certainly growth, but please proceed cautiously. There’s tons of marketing that overhypes this sport as an asset class, and I don’t want anyone getting hurt.

🏆 Pro Padel Roundup 

Pregamin’ the Italy Major

The Premier Padel tour shifts to Rome this week, where the BNL Italy Major kicks off this week at the iconic Foro Italico.

On the men’s side, all eyes remain on the battle between flailing world No. 1s Coello / Tapia and the red-hot No. 2s Galán / Chingotto, who have already collected five titles this season and won the last two Rome finals. Another major storyline is the long-awaited reunion of Navarro / Di Nenno. Once one of padel’s most beloved partnerships, the pair reunites after Di Nenno’s difficult start to the season, with the Argentine already saying he believes Paquito can help bring back his best level.

The women’s draw may be harder to predict. While Triay / Brea enter as the top-ranked pair, Josemaría / González have won the last five tournaments on the calendar, repeatedly defeating the world No. 1s and arriving in Rome with enormous momentum.

Some Albanian Drama

While Premier Padel paused, several top players took advantage of the FIP Platinum Albania to chase valuable ranking points and match reps ahead of Rome. Stupaczuk / Yanguas captured the title, earning their first trophy of the season heading into the Italy Major. Despite the world No. 3 pair lifting the trophy, social media pointed to visible frustration and uneven on-court chemistry during key moments.

Meanwhile, Iñigo Jofre drew criticism after partnering with Hong Kong’s Lok Hei Jamie Yau, a player ranked outside the world’s top 900 who gained direct entry through the “combined ranking system.” The pairing reignited debate about loopholes in the FIP registration process, though Jofre defended the decision, insisting the duo had followed all rules.

Finally, if you’re a Premier Padel obsessionist like me and want more English-speaking intel on the pro scene, check out The Padel Report here!

🎯 Quick Hits 

• What does a mature 🇺🇸 padel market actually look like? Our friends at Padel Nation crunched the numbers and came to a provocative conclusion: America’s court ceiling may be far higher than skeptics think, but far lower than the industry’s loudest evangelists predict.

• Real Madrid presidential candidate Enrique Riquelme is proposing turning the club’s training complex into a massive sports and social hub with 40+ padel and tennis courts. (🇪🇸)

• Premier Padel and Red Bull have launched the sport’s first major mobile game, letting fans compete online, build clubs, and climb from local leagues to the Majors. (🌎)

• As Budapest prepared to host the UEFA Champions League Final, Premier Padel Chairman / Paris Saint-Germain President Nasser Al-Khelaïfi brought together figures from across the sports industry for a game of padel. (🇭🇺🇪🇺)

• Is padel elitist? While some players point to expensive gear, ranking apps, and finance-heavy club scenes, others argue it’s simply a fast-growing sport going through the same social stratification cycle as tennis, cycling, and golf.

🤩 Cool Club of the Week

📍 Vientiane, 🇱🇦
More info here!

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Missed a recent issue? Todo tranca che ;) we got you covered:

• Well That Escalated Quickly

• Record Crowds, Empty Courts

• 📌 Hot take editorials:

  • I Said US Padel Is Ass-Backward. Here’s What Ensued

  • I Went to a Premier Padel Tournament So You Don’t Have To (Jk, You Need to Go)

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Thanks for reading! My promise: I’ll keep the newsletters coming, you share with a friend if you’re enjoying. Está bien? Forward to a friend.

For more on-the-ground 🌎 padel content from a 🇺🇸 POV, follow @padelyanqui on Instagram! And if you have any feedback, news to share, or are interested in becoming a preferred partner of El Remate, just respond to this email :)

See you next week & keep smashing those volleys 🎾