Record Crowds, Empty Courts
El Remate #31 | What's hot in 🇺🇸 & 🌎 padel | May 12-19, 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! 📧
Holy cow, what a week. I had the pleasure of covering Premier Padel for the second time, this time in one of the sport’s global capitals: Buenos Aires 🇦🇷. With 99% certainty I was the only 🇺🇸 there, I watched an unruly fan section (drums, horns, the works) repeatedly drown out an increasingly irritated chair umpire. I also froze my ass off and am now writing this through a wall of sniffles. I have zero regrets.
Curious how it all looked live? My on-the-ground content (so far) is up on Instagram, check it out here. Plenty more to come soon…
Onward!
🔍 Topics we’ll cover this weekPadel just set an all-time attendance record in Buenos Aires. The same week, a New York club announced it’ll be closing its doors after less than a year.
Meanwhile, Premier Padel wrapped with a 77-minute demolition of the No. 1s, and something seems “off” with one of them.
Also in this issue:
— The side stance vs. open stance debate
— Utah gets stronger, a proposal hits Miami, and will padel come to Reno?
— Youth development gets a massive boost
— A rebellious operator’s association
…and plenty more. Seguimos!
🇺🇸 Club OpeningsNow Open
Over in Orem, UT (40 minutes outside Salt Lake City), Padel Den officially opened its doors with five indoor courts, becoming the second dedicated padel club in the state. The club was founded by brothers Kyle and Parker Quinlan after a vacation discovery in Puerto Rico.
Additional Club Buzz 🐝
Former University of Florida tennis player Trevor Taylor is trying to build Setra Padel, which would transform a Miami office park rooftop into a 7-court padel hub. However, Miami-Dade County says athletic facilities aren’t even allowed in the area, which is adjacent to Miami International Airport. Approval is currently pending…
American padel isn’t all rainbows and butterflies. Sadly, NYC-based Padel&’s Greenpoint location is shutting down on May 31 after just a year. Its Syosset location will remain open.
Tempe, AZ-based Conquer Padel just tapped veteran entrepreneur David Burnett to lead multi-unit expansion in Reno, Seattle, and Chicago.
📈 Up Your Game Hmmm… Which Should You Use?
You’ve probably heard your pro repeatedly yell “turn sideways!” And while the side position still matters, many amateur players overuse it and end up feeling late, rushed, and out of position. In this 10-minute video, Coach Dani explains how understanding when to use the classic side stance vs. the modern open stance can completely change your efficiency in padel.
The side position is the traditional “turn your body sideways” setup. It’s fantastic for generating power because you can transfer your body weight forward into the shot.
Many players feel more natural hitting aggressive overheads, bandejas, víboras, bajadas, and smashes from this stance.
The side position also gives a very clean feeling of directional control, whereby your body alignment naturally guides the ball crosscourt or down the line.
However, there’s a catch: the side position costs time and energy.
Every shot requires more footwork, more repositioning, and more recovery back to ready position afterward. And in today’s padel (where balls fly faster and exchanges are more chaotic) you often don’t have enough time to fully set your body.
Not to mention, your body positioning can telegraph your intentions. If you fully turn crosscourt, experienced opponents can often read where you’re about to play before you even hit the ball.
➡️ That’s where the open stance becomes so valuable.
In an open stance, you stay much more square to the court. Instead of heavily repositioning your feet, you rely more on shoulder rotation and racket preparation.
As a result, you react and recover faster. Plus you save energy and become less predictable.
However (again), the catch here is lack of coordination. Relative to the side position, timing and racket face control matter more. If your mechanics are sloppy, the shot quickly falls apart.
At the end of the day, neither stance is “correct.” The best players learn to read the room and adapt their stance each shot based on time available, ball speed, court position, and physical fitness. Éxitos!
🏆 Pro Padel RoundupNew World Record, Tapia Concerns, + A Four-/Five-peat (🇦🇷)
First off, history was made at the Buenos Aires P1. The semifinals featured 16,920 fans packed into Parque Roca, which was a new all-time attendance record for professional padel. Funny enough, this new record eclipsed the previous mark at the same venue set just last year. No other venue outside 🇪🇸 and 🇦🇷 has cracked 13,000!
On the men’s side, Chingalán seem to be in the midst of a generational shift at the top. In the finals, they absolutely dominated World No. 1s Coello / Tapia 6-2, 6-1 in just 77 minutes. This is four straight final wins over them, and five titles in 2026 vs. two for “Tapiello.” Highlights here.
To dive into this a bit further, something seems “off” with Tapia these days. What I’ve been hearing is an upper limb injury he’s been managing since at least 2024, which checks out given long stretches of diminished play, brief recoveries, then another dip.
In Buenos Aires, on a slow court (given the cold climate, as this was a covered outdoor venue) that should have neutralized some of Chingalán’s physicality, Tapia barely attempted smashes. When he did, they were countered. His offensive contributions were described by many as “harmless” (i.e., weak viboras feeding Galán’s corner, zero offensive pressure, and body language that read as someone managing pain vs. competing to win). While no evident answers have emerged, only time will tell with two weeks off before the Italy Major.
On the women’s side, Josemaría / González claimed a fifth consecutive title (all five against Brea / Triay), which was a winning streak that has no precedent in women’s padel. While the No. 2s were able to take down the No. 1s in two straight sets, the game scores were definitely tighter than the men’s at 6-3, 7-5. Bea said it best in the press room: “Winning a tournament is so difficult that reaching five in a row is truly incredible.” Highlights here.
Meanwhile Off-Court…
Women’s World No. 1 Delfi Brea joined Red Bull’s elite padel roster alongside Juan Lebrón, Ale Galán, and Bea González.
🎯 Quick Hits WME Sports just signed four junior padel players, investing in the future of youth development within the sport (🇦🇷🇺🇸🇸🇪)
British royalty Kate Middleton says she’s obsessed with padel, and even plays with her parents in their 70s (🇬🇧)
France’s private padel clubs are no longer operating solo. Operators representing ~75% of the country’s facilities just formed the Association Nationale du Padel (ANP), creating what some insiders are calling a “counter-power” to the French Tennis Federation as the sport enters its next growth phase (🇫🇷)
Padel’s UK gold rush is starting to look a little... frothy? The sport just crossed 1 million players in Britain, but operators are already warning that clueless “cowboy” investors are piling in chasing easy money (🇬🇧)
UK real estate giant SEGRO just partnered with LTA to bankroll grassroots tennis and padel expansion across the UK. With British participation exploding from 15K players in 2019 to 860K+ in 2025, real estate for courts, programming, and ecosystem control is now more relevant than ever. (🇬🇧)
Spicy player debates:
Should friends include you even if you’re the clear weak link (because “real friends help you improve”), or does competitive culture override social loyalty (because “court time is expensive”)?
If you’re experiencing wrist pain, do lightweight rackets save your arm, or are they the likely culprit?
Tennis vs. padel: friends or rivals? My opinion: friends.
🤩 Cool Club of the Week📍 Kavála, 🇬🇷
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, 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 🎾