“Like tennis and squash”: Padel bounces on the southern suburbs of Perth

It has been described as a fun, social combination of squash and tennis, and now the European padel species has found its way south of the Swan River.

In Italy, Spain and France, popular tennis is played with a low-pressure ball, non-stringed rackets and custom-made closed courts surrounded by plexiglass and metal mesh walls.

Now, the European hybrid has found a home in the Melville Palmyra Tennis Club by joining similar fields installed at Floreast last year.

The new courts south of the river were the ideas of local tennis stars Zach Itzstein and Ashwin Sharma, who ran into the sport for the first time while playing in a tournament in France.

“We were with friends in a town called Angers, and there’s a huge padel there; they have a paddle field in many clubs, ”Sharma said.

“We both tried it and we both really liked it. I thought it was fun; I remember saying to Zach, “This is a lot more fun than tennis.”

“Australians are really athletic. If you like tennis, you’ll almost certainly like this and we know Australians really like tennis, so we thought if we had a chance, we’d bring it back.

Itzstein said the game was for fun and was an easier version than tennis, making it the perfect social sport.

“It’s smaller than a tennis court, but it’s always played in doubles. It’s good for teamwork, especially on a smaller field, and the fact that it can bounce off walls like in squash makes for fun and exciting races, ”he said.

“Because it’s a small court and has two people, you have to get out of each other’s way. You have to talk, there is no such dead time between points.

“Power doesn’t necessarily win the game; you have to put it in a corner, and armpit maintenance is another thing that makes it easier.”

Alex Foster, president of Melville Palmyra Tennis Club, said they wanted to diversify and offer something different and were excited when Itzstein and Sharma had contacted them.

“We always do things differently in Melville. We had an extra room and one lawn, that’s all we had to take away, ”he said.

“Tennis can be a little traditional, but we’ve always been open to different things. The guys came along and there was a point of decentralization; that is what we want to do.

“We want to put it in front and in the middle. If you look at it in Spain and South America, it’s about family participation and community, being together, eating together, drinking, watching it and playing.