Heyoooo people! It’s Tim and Matt again, hope all of you are doing well and getting through the dreary November just fine.

We will be ending our week with a short weekend trip to Switzerland, to celebrate a whole bunch of birthdays - so no padel for us this weekend :( Hope you guys will make up for that though!

Today’s newsletter is 1231 words - a 7.5 minute read.

In this issue

🥇Matt’s key to improvement (spoiler it wasn’t a new racket)

🗞️  All news and rumors in the professional circuit

📸 Court of the week, a personal request to all project developers.

👍 Poll of the week

Last week’s poll results

Which Padel content do you enjoy the most?

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ Fun content (1)

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Educational Content (4)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ Event Recaps / Highlights (0)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ Gear Reviews (1)

🧨 Quick hits

Starting off this week’s quick hits, the semi viral interview of Messi where he mentioned how much he loves playing Padel. In case you haven’t seen the video yet, here it is.

Next to that Messi is also investing in Padel with his involvement with Taktika Padel which really enhances the sport's visibility and growth in the U.S.

The U.S. Padel Association (USPA) is actively expanding the sport in the United States. Recently, they announced that applications for clubs wishing to host tournaments in 2025 are now open. It’s great to see how the sport is growing not only on our side of the pond but also in the US!

👑 🎾 Matt’s key to improvement (spoiler, it wasn’t a new racket)

To give you a bit of background on myself as a Padel player. Tim, my co-writer, actually was the person that first took me to a Padel court - on a very early and cold morning a few years ago. I’ve played tennis from a young age, so I was rather intrigued by it. However, it was during a time that I was playing quite a lot of Tennis, so the Padel bug didn’t quite catch straight away (might also have been an issue with it being early in the morning 😴).

Fast forward about 1 year and after some easy going friendly matches, I out of nowhere was hooked. I started to get a feel for it and finally got my big tennis swings out of the way and instead started playing padel 🤩 

However, as I started playing against better players I felt like my improvements were shortly lived 🥲Time and time again balls would be flying past me (or at times against me). And instead of realising that I should probably work on my positioning, I bought a new racket - like every sane person would 😜.

All joking aside, it has helped me tremendously to really focus on my positioning and I feel like it’s a topic that is very easily overlooked and wanted to share some of the tips that have helped me a lot.

🎾 First tip❗️

Always be aware of where you are standing 👣. I found myself way too often in ‘no mans land’, both by just creeping forward from the back of the court. Or by just overstretching a bit too much for a high ball at the net and then not actually returning to my net position.

After you hit your shot take a mental note of where you are on the court and where you are supposed to be. Especially if you have a day where you are not moving very swiftly 💨 - just focus on your 2 main positions, the one at the net and at the back, always return to these and I guarantee you that your day will improve.

🎾 Second tip❗️

Always stay in sync with your partner 👯‍♂️.

Even if you feel like there is room to quickly move into the attacking position, but your partner is on the wrong foot. Just wait. Better play it safe and actually get into a strong position. It has happened to me so many times where you lose a point simply because an ocean of space has opened up because one of us was eager to get into the attacking position (mostly me 🫣🤫) and the opposite team was able to drop the ball in the ocean.

Check out the following video for a quick recap on all the basics on positioning and hope my experience will also help you all, especially on the days where you are not flying!

The news that is going around in the pro circuit:

Over the last week there has been a whole lot happening in the pro world. We ended last week with the premier padel tour in Dubai, which has now moved on to Kuwait. So here’s a short recap of all that has happend.

🎾 The golden boys do it again! 🔥

In the highly anticipated clash of titans, the golden boys have been able to clinch their 6th!! consecutive title.

The final of the Dubai Premier Padel P1 tournament featured a highly anticipated "classico" matchup between Tapia and Coello against Galán and Chingotto. Rounding it up with a 6-4 and 6-3 victory for Tapia and Coello.

🥇In the women’s division Bea Gonzales is back! 💪

After months of setbacks and injuries, Bea González has come back stronger than ever. In her first tournament back after a pectoral injury, Bea has shown she’s ready to compete for the world’s top spot once again. Together with Delfi Brea they were crowned winners of the Premier Padel P1 title in Dubai. By defeating Alonso De Villa / Ustero Prieto in a 6-2; 6-3 match.

Ale Galan injured 🤕

After the final in Dubai Ale Galan hasn’t looked the fittest. During the second set of the final, Galan stopped the match briefly and asked for medical assistance. Luckily he was able to continue to play with a knee brace.

But it seems like his knee is still acting up, in the first rounds of the premier padel Kuwait he didn’t look as swift as he usually would, despite winning and making it to the final 16 at the time of writing.

Rumours who Chingotto perhaps will have to partner up with.

Sofar it seems that Galan will be able to continue to play and by winning the first rounds it seems the rumours are ungrounded. However it’s always fun to speculate a bit.

On the one hand people would love to see Augsburger - however it would be super nice to see him partnering up with his old partner Tello again. A team that inseparable from their teens until 2022. Would always be nice to see a partnering ‘like in the old days’

🏝️ Dream court of the week ❄️

🇫🇷 Tignes, France

For a special promotional event Cupra built this court at the bottom of a skislope ⛷️. Now we thought we simply had to include this - with us going to Switzerland. In case there are any project developers in this newsletter - Please take a look at this, we would love to play some padel after hitting the slopes and we can’t be the only ones.

📺 What to watch

🇰🇼 KUWAIT CITY PREMIER PADEL P1

Tune in on YouTube at PremierPadel.

Below you see the bracket of the upcoming matches. So make sure to tune in for some spicy matches and see whether Galan will be able to power through his injury.