‘I played padel with a GB star – inside the rise of London’s fastest-growing sport’

Usually when you are in a cage you want to get out. But not this time.

This is not any type of cage though; it’s a plush court with a net and bouncy walls.

I’m not playing with any normal opponent, either. I’m standing alongside a British padel star at the helm of the sport’s meteoric rise.

I joined British number 8 Sam Jones to try my hand at the sport taking over London,

Padel’s ascent has been breathtaking.

There were just 68 courts in the UK in 2019 and a meagre 15,000 players.

Within six years there were more than 1,000 courts and as many as 400,000 players, according to LTA data from 2025.

One year later? The number of padel players has more than doubled to 860,000.

The 2026 figures also showed there are more than 1,500 courts across more than 500 venues, with the London scene driving the sport’s growth.

As an experienced tennis player, I walked with some bravado onto the new court at House of Raquet in north London, confident these two sports could hardly be any different.

I was wrong. A padel court is smaller and is surrounded by walls made from glass and metal mesh. The racket is shorter and lighter, too.

The game itself, which originated in Mexico in the early 1900s and became mainstream in Spain, is a mix of tennis and squash.

It revolves around long rallies during which the ball rebounds of walls and players try to set up clever angles.

That’s the aim, anyway. I had a bit of learning to do first – luckily from the best in the business.

Sam Jones, 26, also switched from tennis to padel after a court appeared at his local sports center when he was 14.

Within a year he was playing the sport full time and had moved out to Spain.

He told Metro: ‘It was so friendly, it was so fun. Tennis was very serious. Even the most serious padel match I played was still fun.’

‘The great thing about padel [is] anyone plays. Any gender, age, any size can always have a really fun match regardless of their level.

‘The rallies are always long. It’s very inclusive.’

Sam is not wrong. Despite having a painful beginner on the court, our group of four soon got into some fast-paced rallies that tested my reaction times and hand-eye co-ordination.

Padel spreads across the world

Spain is the capital of Padel. It has more than 20,000 courts and an estimated six million active players.

It’s also popular in Mexico, Argentina and other Latin American countries.

Now the game is spreading across the world.

Sam explained: ‘When I first started, it literally was just in Spain and maybe Portugal. If you wanted to be a bit different, you went to Argentina or South America.

‘Now you look at any country and they’ve got a tournament. I have travelled from Australia to Japan, the Middle East to Europe.’

Sam turned pro and reached a world ranking of 162 in 2024, becoming the British number two and representing his country more than a dozen times.

The padel star spent most of the last decade playing tournaments around the world, before moving back home last year.

He said the rise in padel’s popularity in the UK, since he moved to Spain for the sport over a decade ago, had been ‘crazy’.

Sam explained: ‘I was probably one of the first players to ever play in the UK. It is amazing to see where it is now.

‘I hear people on the train talk about their matches. In the last two years it’s gone to a different level. Courts and clubs are popping up all over London.’

According to the 2025 Global Padel Report a new club opens approximately every two and a half hours worldwide.

The UK is a key part of that growth and has skyrocketed to one of the world’s top three padel markets.

Padel has sucked in new fans so quickly because it is ‘more than just a sport’, says avid player Oliver Preston, who joined us on court.

The businessman said: ‘It is very social. People are using padel to meet other people romantically, for business.

‘Where you previously would have gone to a drinks and canope event, there would be more take up for a padel networking match instead.’

Preston has joined the wave of start-ups and initiatives hoping to benefit from the padel boom.

He has started up a new app called Seed to bring the game’s legion of players into one ‘ecosystem’.

The app combines a booking system with social chats where players can communicate with each other and their club.

It also offers virtual coaching with coaches like Sam, as well as the option to upload videos of your matches for others to watch.

Preston added: ‘There is really high demand at the moment. Everyone wants to play all the time, courts fill organically.

‘Our app will help the community of players speak to each other and grow the game. We are the next evolution of tech to support padel’s growth.

Seed’s first club has gone live on their system – Farm Padel in Hertfordshire, with a second in the works.

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