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 culture, strategy, 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! 📧
Greetings from Spain’s capital, where I’ll be covering the Premier Padel Madrid P1 this week! If you want to tune into on-the-ground content from the tournament, follow El Remate’s Instagram account here.
🔍 Topics we’ll cover this weekFrom the ice rink to Roland-Garros, padel is clearly getting comfortable crashing other sports’ parties. Whether this is audience mooching or the buildup of long-term alliances, only time will tell.
Meanwhile, a pro team now has its own club, and the 2026 Premier Padel season is SO back.
Also in this issue:
— A Texas-sized padel bet
— Fix your offensive positioning
— Can a “tie” exist?
…and plenty more. Dale campeón!
🇺🇸 Court OpeningsComing Soon
If you’re a Texas local, you’ll appreciate this one! Deep in the Hill Country (55 miles northwest of Austin), well-known Horseshoe Bay Resort has broken ground on a $10 million racquet-sports expansion that will add four padel courts and a 6,690-square-foot clubhouse by Summer 2027. The courts will join the resort’s existing 12 tennis and 14 pickleball courts, with the new clubhouse featuring an indoor lounge overlooking the courts, alongside retail, food and beverage, and social spaces.
Just down the road in Austin, TX, San Antonio-based Slice Padel Co. is turning the rooftop of a downtown parking garage into a six-court padel club, replacing ~118 parking spaces with a clubhouse, pro shop, café and bar. Slice plans to invest $500K into the 42,000-square-foot rooftop, giving the company a downtown Austin foothold as it expands beyond its San Antonio roots. The three-year lease includes two one-year extensions, but an opening date has not yet been set as Slice works through permitting.
West Palm Beach, FL-based real-estate firm Related Ross and East Hampton, NY-based retail store Set Point Tennis are teaming up on a residents-only racquet club at Edgeworth, a forthcoming luxury waterfront development in downtown West Palm Beach, FL. Opening in 2029, the club will offer tennis, padel, and pickleball alongside private instruction, clinics, social & competitive play, and junior programming. Set Point will also operate an on-site racquet pro shop and concierge services.
Now Open
Padel Haus just opened its Denver, CO location in the city’s Five Points neighborhood, bringing five indoor courts with 25-foot ceilings. The club is pairing padel with spa-like locker rooms, a premium gym, pro shop, café/juice bar, and coworking + lounge spaces.
Additional Club Buzz 🐝
Speaking of, Padel Haus has partnered with the New York Atlantics of the Pro Padel League, making its new Greenpoint (NYC) location the team’s official training center and community hub. The partnership will bring Atlantics-branded merchandise, watch parties, and other fan events to Padel Haus, while the club gets logo placement on practice jerseys and co-branded content… all aimed at connecting professional padel with NYC’s growing recreational community.
📈 Up Your Game Stop Attacking From the Wrong Place: NYC Edition
This week, YouTube legend Coach Mauri from Hello Padel made the trek to Padel Haus in NYC to help some local rising stars.
After watching them play, he had three big critiques that I’m 99% sure will apply to y’all as well, unpacked in this 9.5-minute video:
As a general rule of thumb, defend from the back, attack from the front. If you accidentally hit a shallow lob into mid-court, the last thing you want to do is rush forward. Instead, give yourself time and space to defend by staying back and using the back wall when appropriate, while waiting for a better ball to move forward and attack.
The split step is another tiny detail that makes a huge difference. You don’t want to still be running into position when your opponent makes contact. Get there, set your feet, and split-step *before* they hit. Being half a second late can be the difference between comfortably defending a ball and getting jammed by it.
Remember that “you win with nothing.” Avoid falling into the temptation of hitting winners with every shot. Often, the best play is the boring one. Stay back. Make them hit another ball. Force them to keep attacking. You might be surprised how often the point eventually comes to you.
Suerte che!
🌍 International Happenings Borrowing Everyone Else’s Spotlight (🇦🇹🇩🇪🇫🇷🇦🇺🇦🇷)
We’re now seeing another emerging trend in the market this week as part of padel’s gradual, worldwide growth: leveraging the audience of other sports’ fanbases.
In Salzburg, Premier Padel partnered with Red Bull to build a padel court directly on the ice at the Red Bull Ice Hockey Academy, pitting two of Red Bull’s own pro hockey clubs (one Austrian, one German) against each other. Fear not, this wasn’t the players’ first rodeo. All four play padel regularly as part of their training. Women’s world No. 1 Delfi Brea worked the sideline as advisor. The Austrian team won at home, while the German visitors are already asking for a rematch.
Meanwhile in Paris, the French Tennis Federation is opening the upcoming Premier Padel Paris Major on September 6 with a “Tennis vs. Padel” exhibition featuring retired French tennis icons Richard Gasquet, Lucas Pouille, Arnaud Clément, and Fabrice Santoro squaring off against padel pros Paquito Navarro and Sanyo Gutiérrez, within the central hub of Roland-Garros stadium.
And now, two-time US Open champion and tennis Hall of Famer Pat Rafter will represent Australia at the FIP Senior World Cup in Buenos Aires in mid-September.
From my POV, it’ll be worth seeing whether all this borrowed attention converts into anyone new picking up a racquet, or just more good photos…
🏆 Pro Padel Roundup Pregamin’ Madrid, + a Med Games Debut to Remember (🇪🇸🇮🇹)
The Premier Padel Tour returns from the summer break with the Madrid P1 this week. On the men’s side, “Golden Boys” Coello / Tapia are looking to clinch another title following their London victory. On the women’s side, Claudia Fernández goes for a third straight Madrid title, this time with Martina Calvo. In the meantime, 40-year old Alejandra Salazar is gearing up for retirement in her last pro tournament, in her home city.
And closing out this year’s quadrennial Mediterranean Games in Taranto, Italy, where padel made its first appearance:
Spain’s José Antonio Diestro / David Gala won the men’s title against Italy’s Flavio Abbate / Alvaro Montiel
Spain’s Lucía Sainz / Patty Llaguno took the women’s title over (also) Spain’s Jimena Velasco / Nuria Rodríguez
Portugal’s Sofia & Pedro Araújo (brother and sister), took the mixed title over Italy’s Giulia Dal Pozzo / Marco Cassetta
🎯 Quick Hits UK’s LTA and Loughborough University have launched a new research project exploring how climate change could reshape tennis & padel facilities, participation and events. (🇬🇧)
PadelPROShop has expanded its national-team portfolio, becoming an official partner of both Spain and Argentina ahead of the FIP World Cup in Doha this November. (🇪🇸🇦🇷🇶🇦)
Tapia snipes a por tres from downtown during his visit to India. (🇮🇳🇦🇷)
Worth tuning in:
USA Padel CEO Scott Colebourne joined popular American padel personality Padelbryant to discuss what’s needed to keep padel’s growth going in the US. (🇺🇸)
Prominent Spanish padel media personality Adrián Illescas believes that the women’s circuit has “brought a smile to Premier Padel.” (🇪🇸)
Community musings:
Is a match ruled a “tie” when court time runs out going into or during third set?
What should you be drinking during a long padel session? Electrolytes, plain water, or even DIY mixes?
🤩 Cool Court of the Week📍 East Nusa Tenggara, 🇮🇩
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 🎾