About Us

The team behind Padel Malta is Janika and Karl Wijkmark. Both sports enthusiast, they came across Padel a couple of years ago in Sweden. From that very day they were convinced that Padel had to make it’s way to Malta.

With previous business experience from their charity water company here in Malta, Contribute Water, the team decided to roll up their sleeves and make Padel a reality in Malta. After many long nights, new-gained experience in concrete (!) and many laughs, they are now happy to announce Padel Malta in Pembroke.

About Padel

Imagine a sport that is new to Malta, easy to learn, social and creates a ‘feel good’ vibe both physically and mentally. It is called – Padel!

Padel can be explained as a mix between tennis and squash with a net in the middle. Scoring works the same way as in Tennis and the sport is played with similar balls to tennis but with less pressure. The Padel (racket) is stringless and made out of carbonfiber with a solid surface with holes in it. Serves are made below or at waist level. A major difference compared to tennis is that the walls surrounding the court can be used in the game (similar to squash). It is always played in doubles and the size of the court is about a third of a tennis court.

Short history of Padel

In 1974 the Spaniard Alfonso de Hohenlohe went to visit his friend Enrique Corcuera in Mexico and got to experience the new sport that Corcuera had ‘invented’ in his own backyard. De Hohenlohe was intrigued by the game and took it back with him to Spain where he built two courts at the Marbella Club. A year later, a friend of de Hohenlohe, the Argentinian man Julio Menditengui, who frequented the Marbella Club, was amazed by the sport and introduced it in Argentina. A few years later it became the second most played sport in the country and today there are more than two million players enjoying Padel in the country’s over 10 000 courts. The sport also continued to grow in Spain and is now the second biggest sport even in Spain, only after football. As an example; 900,000 Padel rackets are sold in Spain every year compared to 400,000 tennis rackets which goes to show how big the sport has grown.

Padel has grown into a global sport and is now enjoyed in countries such as Portugal, Belgium,France, Holland, Sweden, Finland, UK, Chile, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, USA and Canada to mention a few. It is estimated that more than twelve million people play Padel worldwide according to the International Padel Federation. The sport is nowadays organized through the International Padel Federation that was founded in 1991 and includes 35 national federations.

Basic Padel rules

Format

All play in the sport of Padel is doubles format.

Scoring

In the sport of Padel, the same scoring system is used as in the sport of tennis.

Service

In Padel, all play begins with an underhand serve from the right service court into the opponent’s court diagonally across similar to tennis.

The server must allow the ball to bounce once before hitting it and the ball must be hit below waist level.

The serve must land in the opponent’s service box. If the ball bounces in the service box and strikes the side or back wall, it is a valid serve and must be played by the opposing player. If the ball lands in the service box and hits the wire fencing, it is considered a fault.

The server must keep at least one foot on the ground when hitting the serve. The server’s feet may not touch or cross the service line while serving.

In Padel, similar to tennis, the server has two opportunities to complete the serve.

The court lines are considered in play only during the initial serve. Otherwise, they are not a factor in determining the outcome of each point in the game between opposing players.

Loss of point

The opposition wins a point when any of the following events occur:

The ball bounces twice in any area on your side of the court.

The ball strikes you or your teammate while in play.

The ball hits the wire fencing, posts or any other fixture before going over the net or landing on the opponent’s court.

The ball is considered out of bounds and a point is given to the opposing players if the ball hits the wire fence or walls before bouncing on the opponent’s side of the court.

Overhand strokes

The ball can be taken out of the air by any player except on the initial serve and the return of serve.