Padel World Ranking: Spanish is spoken exclusively
Padel is still a young sport. And looking at the worldwide rankings for men and women, it can be said that countries like Spain and Argentina are way ahead at the moment.
by Robin Huiber
last edit: Feb 23, 2022, 04:38 pm
Two things are noticeable when you first look at the world rankings for women and men published by the World Padel Tour: The top places are occupied here and there by well-rehearsed couples, which is why there are two leaders (and also third parties) in the charts separated by gender gives. However, it is much more remarkable that at the top of the world only Spanish is spoken.
On the men's side, two Spaniards, Alejandro Galán Romo and Juan LeBron Chincoa, lead the rankings, while on the women's side, there are also two Iberians, Alejandra Salazar Bengoechea and Gemma Triay Pons. The top ten are then also made up of Argentinians, the first “outlier” is the Brazilian Pablo Lima as number 12 among the men, and number 20 among the women: Alix Collombon from France. Italy, a country where padel is also booming in addition to "regular" tennis, has to make do with Carolina Orsi Gallorini, who is ranked 56th in the world as the best representative. After all, Sweden can claim that it has as many players in the top 100 of the ATP world rankings as in the padel cracks: here Mikael Ymer as number 83, there Daniel Windahl as number 98.
The tour also stops in Austria
However, one looks in vain for German-speaking representatives. This may also be related to the tournament calendar, which includes the first two stops in Acapulco and Miami at the beginning of February. From June 6th to 10th the World Padel Tour will also stop in Austria. As a combined event for men and women. The tour also stops in the Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden, Denmark and Italy. After all, you want to market the still young sport properly.
By the way, the German Padel Association currently lists Mael Saugy from TC Grötzingen as the best German player, followed by Lars Bosselmann (TC 71 Weyhe) and Timo Dietz, who also plays for Grötzingen. If you are interested: In Germany there is a Padel Bundesliga and a Padel Amateurliga.
Austria's number one, Christoph Krenn, is optimistic
Padel is also becoming increasingly popular in Austria: despite the restrictions imposed by the corona virus, 140 tournaments were held in 2021, according to the Austrian Padel Union, 20 of them at the highest level, the expert level. The men's ranking in Austria is led by David Alten ahead of Christoph Krenn and Michael Brus. Alten and Krenn prefer to compete together. In the world rankings, Christoph Krenn, formerly even world champion in Rackleton, is currently only 786th. But Krenn is not lacking in self-confidence, as he revealed to the Kronen Zeitung in autumn 2021: "Spain, Portugal, Sweden, France and Italy - these are the top 5. After that we will surely come!”