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El Remate #16 | What's hot in 🇺🇸 & 🌎 padel | Jan. 27 - Feb. 3, 2026
Bienvenidos a El Remate! I’m Aris, a padel-obsessed Missourian who spent the last 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! 📧
🔍 Topics we’ll cover this weekOhio gets its dead-of-winter padel lifeline, and facility M&A finally becomes a public matter. Partnerships are flooding in across the premium-to-everyday spectrum, while a particular player’s smashes in Madrid are borderline criminal.
Also in this issue:
— The volley fix you’ve been missing
— Right-side players get 💩 on
— An F1 driver makes a padel investment & cameo
— Tennis vs. squash converts square up
— How much time to warm up?
…and plenty more. Seguimos!
🇺🇸 Club Buzz The Spotlight Continues on Non-Coastal America
🌳 Ohio’s First
After a soft tease covered in El Remate #10 just before Christmas, Padel Square officially opened its doors yesterday. Located in Garfield Heights (10 miles outside downtown Cleveland), the club was built by four partners who couldn’t find a place to play and decided to build their own. The facility features six padel courts, two pickleball courts, locker rooms, and a lounge-forward setup.
🤠 Padel M&A Hits Texas
Not a brand-new opening, but definitely some club buzz worth flagging: Austin-based Padel39 just acquired Dallas Padel Club in Carrollton, TX. This is one of the first public U.S. padel facility acquisitions to date. The 4.5-acre site (3 indoor + 7 outdoor courts) is mid-renovation and set to rebrand as “Padel39 (North Dallas)” by early summer, with upgraded courts, expanded amenities, and premium programming similar to their Austin flagship.
As U.S. padel economics sober up, buying existing facilities is faster, cheaper, and less risky than greenfield builds. As a big believer of consolidation coming before mass adoption, I continue to bet we’ll see more quiet roll-ups like this.
📈 Up Your Game Rethink Your Volley
I wished I had watched this video sooner… it nicely fine-tuned my volley. In addition to the detailed visual aid, here are my three takeaways:
If your volley isn’t flat and in front of your opponent’s feet, you’re essentially inviting them to smash or lob.
Your natural instinct is to push the ball deep to keep your opponent back, but if it floats or lands too far, they get to dictate the pace. Instead, hit short, compact volleys that force them to react under pressure.
Avoid arm-only swings at all costs. Your arm alone doesn’t generate enough control or speed. Instead, use your shoulders and body rotation to power volleys. You stay more compact, more consistent, and you can shift to offense the moment the opportunity appears.
🌍 International Happenings Big Week for Partnerships. All Over the Spectrum.
On the luxury side, Swiss watchmaker Frederique Constant just became the Official Timekeeper of North America’s Pro Padel League, with a limited-edition PPL-branded watch dropping soon.
On the other side of the sponsorship spectrum, top-10 world player Coki Nieto just signed as the face of France-based Decathlon’s in-house padel brand Kuikma, co-creating high-performance racquets designed to dominate tournaments while still being affordable for regular players.
And last but not least, HEAD just launched the Arturo Coello 2026 collection: five racquets + four premium bags, all co-designed with the the man himself. Imo, seems that HEAD wants to leverage Coello as a marketing play for how athlete-driven branding can scale across skill levels.
🏆 Pro Padel RoundupHexagon Cup Sets Stage for a Killer 2026 Season (🇪🇸)
For those who didn’t already know (admittedly, myself included), this past weekend’s Generali Hexagon Cup is a team-based, preseason event in Madrid where top men and women are shuffled into squads. With drafted teams and golden-point games, the tournament is a playground for pros to test pairings before the official season starts.
This year, Advantage Team ran the table. On the women’s side, Delfi Brea and Martina Calvo handled Sofía Araújo and Claudia Jensen 7-5, 6-3. On the men’s, Juan Tello and Martín Di Nenno finished the job 7-6, 6-2. Meanwhile, fans were losing it over (1) Chingotto and Momo’s chemistry and (2) Chingo’s insane smashes. See what I mean here.
🎯 Quick HitsFrench F1 driver Pierre Gasly is investing in padel and spent last Saturday at the Hexagon Cup.
Up for debate:
Do right-side players deserve less respect?
Do tennis or squash players master padel faster? After reading this, I still think tennis… but not by much.
Those 90 minutes of court time are sacred. How much of it should be devoted to warming up?
POV: you’re Premier Padel’s camera gimbal 😮
🤩 Cool Padel Court of the Week📍 Helsinki, 🇫🇮
More info here!
Missed a recent issue? Todo tranca che ;) we got you covered:
📌 Hot take editorials:
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 or news to share, just respond to this email :)
See you next week & keep smashing those volleys 🎾