Padel, 'World's Fastest-Growing Sport' Gets This Princess Kate Middleton Boost

Kate Middleton, the Princess of Wales, has revealed that she loves to play Padel, 'the fastest-growing sport in the world', adding her name to the long list of celebrities who have promoted the game, one way or another. Not just that, she has also indicated that her family plays it too. The princess has said that she plays this racquet sport with her parents who are both in their seventies. However, her first love, as far as sports go, is lawn tennis. The princess is not the only celeb who is enamoured with padel. A number of celebs play this game, including football icons Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. Among other celebs who have promoted the game are Eva Longoria, Lando Norris and Hugh Grant. And even tennis legend Rafael Nadal have played it.

The princess chose the occasion of a lawn party hosted at the Buckingham Palace along with the Prince of Wales, to air her thoughts while speaking to officials of the Lawn Tennis Association. The princess said, "I love padel". She labelled it as a "great leveller" for all those who don't play lawn tennis. In a chat with some other attendees, she expressed her admiration for the game and revealed that she plays with her parents, the Daily Mail reported. There were some 8000 guests at the event.

What is Padel?

So, what is this game that is constantly in the news? Well, if you have seen or played lawn tennis and squash, you can easily recognise and play this sport. All you need is a smaller enclosed court. Padel rules permit you to play the ball even after it has bounced off the surrounding walls and scoring itself is akin to tennis. Nothing complicated about it, but tactics can be used to dominate. Yes, it may not have the raw energy of lawn tennis, but once you get into the rhythm of the game, it is quite entertaining and you can easily get swept away. Padel can be played in an enclosed court, generally in a doubles format. So you need 4 players to start with.

The padel rackets are not the sleek, technological marvels that lawn tennis has rolled out over the recent years and they look different too. They look too big, have solid sides and the ball itself comes with much lower-pressure.

The similarity with tennis ends with the serve. In tennis generally, overhead serves are there and they take a lot of skill to get it right. However, in padel, serves are performed underarm, taking the difficulty entirely out. It lowers the difficulty to its lowest point possible and enables beginners to start playing immediately.

Another area where padel diverges from tennis are the rallies. In tennis they are generally short, but in padel, they are longer, not least because of the easy pace and the surrounding walls that keep the ball in play for a longer period. That means, players need to shun power in favour of strategy to win on a consistent basis.

While competitiveness never dies, in padel it is mostly under the surface. Instead, padel is considered a social sport that encourages players to interact more.