What Do India, McDonald's, and Padel All Have in Common?
El Remate #5
Welcome to the 5th newsletter of El Remate: your weekly(ish) dose of everything happening in the fastest-growing racquet sport from a 🇺🇸 POV. From London to Buenos Aires to New York City to Madrid, we’re covering it all.
🔍 Topics we’ll cover this week🎰 Dubai goes full Vegas-mode as Tapia/Coello clap back at Chingalán
👑 Bea & Claudia’s fourth crown… and why the women’s field should be nervous
👀 Thailand makes padel official (…but drags pickleball with it 😬)
💬 McDonald’s India enters the chat
🦅 Terrell Owens opens Philly’s newest racket-sport promised land
😆 Wait… Hasbullah plays padel too?
Enjoy the read! 💛
🏆 Tournament Roundup 🏟 Dubai P1 Delivers: Big Arena, Bigger Statements (🇦🇪)
Dubai showed up loud this year: 7,500 fans packed into the Hamdan Sports Complex for finals day, complete with a record-setting 7,000-seat centre court. It felt less like a tournament and more like padel’s version of a Vegas residency.
After dropping two straight finals to Galán/Chingotto, Tapia and Coello rolled into Dubai with revenge on the menu and left with the full tasting menu. 🍽 A clean 6–3, 6–4 win (with zero break points conceded in the second set!) shuts down Chingalán’s streak and reopens the gap at the top.
If the men’s final was a statement, the women’s final was a mic drop. Claudia Fernández and Bea González blitzed the number ones Brea/Triay 6–1, then held their nerve 7–5 after a late surge from the top seeds. That’s three elite pairs taken out in three rounds (Ortega/Icardo, Sánchez/Josemaría, Brea/Triay) and their fourth title of the season. 💅
🌍 International Padel Scene 👀 Thailand Just Went All In on Padel (and… Pickleball) (🇹🇭)
Momentum keeps growing in Asia, as Thailand just officially crowned padel (and pickleball 🙄) as national sports. The Sports Authority of Thailand says this recognition should unlock new funding, sponsorships, and proper coaching pathways. It also puts pressure on neighbors like Malaysia, Vietnam, and Indonesia to stop pretending padel is just a European fever dream.
Thailand Officially Recognises Padel And Pickleball As National Sports
🍟 Big Macs & Bandejas: India’s Most Unexpected Padel Collab (🇮🇳)
McDonald’s India just teamed up with the Indian Padel Academy… because apparently, the road to growing padel in India runs straight through a McSpicy Paneer. 😅 The partnership aims to make the sport more accessible to kids across West & South India, a major win for a country where padel is growing fast but still finding its cultural footing.
What makes this interesting is the scale: McDonald’s has a long history of backing global sports (e.g., Olympics, FIFA World Cup, Little League Teams) and this move pushes them deeper into grassroots padel development, from facilities to coaching to community programs. The idea is to get kids on court early, training with top-tier coaches (instead of just mastering the drive-thru menu).
Leaders at both organizations are pitching this as a “grow the sport from the ground up” play, with school programs, certified training, and local leagues all in the pipeline. And who knows… in a decade we might see the first Indian world-class padel pro decked out in Mickey D’s sponsorships. 🤷♂
🎯 Quick Hits🦅 Terrell Owens, Pickleball… and Oh Yeah, Padel Sneaking In Too (🇺🇸)
Philly just got itself a new racket-sport playground: Ballers, the renovated power plant-turned-50,000+ sq. ft. sports palace where Terrell Owens and world No. 3 pickleballer Connor Garnett headlined the grand opening with a very sweaty 9–9 exhibition match. 😂
The cool part for us: Ballers quietly slipped three brand-new padel courts into the mix, alongside pickleball, squash, golf sims, a café, a bar, and a recovery suite. The founders, David Gutstadt and Amanda Potter, are pitching it as a social club without the country-club snobbery.
Owens called it “one of the best facilities in the country,” and if Philly locals flock here for pickleball, it’s only a matter of time before they wander over to the glass boxes and discover the superior sport. 😉
Ballers’ grand-opening celebration features a pickleball exhibition match with Terrell Owens
🤩 Cool Padel Court of the Week (+ Bonus video 📹)📍 Phuket, 🇹🇭
More info here!
Oh and before you head off, check out this 8-second video of Russian (🇷🇺) man/myth/legend Hasbullah playing padel! 😆
For more 🌍 padel content, 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 🎾