Padel matches with the most Spectators
Year after year, Padel is generating ever-increasing interest: each season more fans, more amateur players, and the professional circuit is increasingly in the spotlight making attendance at tournaments soar as a result. After all, who wouldn't want to try to steal the tricks of the trade from Lebron and Galan as well as enjoy the live show of one of the most fun sports to watch? The numbers of recent years speak for themselves, and in this article we will discuss the games that have set real records in terms of spectator attendance. Records that, as we will see later, are in all likelihood, destined to be broken.
1. La Rioja Open 2023: (13,822 spectators)
In first place could only be Argentina! The second leg of the World Padel Tour 2023, held in La Roija last March was an unprecedented success registering a total of 55,000 spectators throughout the week and reached a record attendance on finals day, where Libaak and Augsburger played on the padel court against Tapia and Coello in the men's and between Alejandra Salazar and Gemma Triay against Bea Gonzalez and Marta Ortega in the women's touching 13,822 spectators.
2. Estrella Damm Master Final 2022 (12,141 spectators)
In second place we find one of the most important padel tournaments held during the season. In the last edition of the Estrella Damm Master Final, which was held in Barcelona last December there was a peak of 12,141 spectators on Saturday, the day of the semifinals where the pairs Lebron/Galan and Chingotto/ Di Nenno for the men's and Josemarìa/Sanchez and Triay/Salazar for the women's beat their opponents, reaching the final.
3. Mendoza Premier Padel P1 2022 (11,106 spectators)
In third place was the August 2022 edition of Premier Padel P1, played in Mendoza, which was also incredibly successful. Indeed, on semifinals day, the 11,106 spectators watched the match between Franco Stupaczuk and Pablo Lima against Álex Ruiz and Momo González, followed by the match between Fernando Belasteguín and Arturo Coello against Paquito Navarro and Martín Di Nenno.
4. Estrella Damm Barcelona Master Final 2019 (9,585 spectators)
With the fourth position we jump back almost four years and find the Barcelona Master Final again. In 2019, an attendance record was reached that had not been broken on a padel court for more than two years. In those years, paddle-tennis had reached a major peak of popularity and players like Paquito Navarro or Juan Lebron had now gone viral. It all culminated, once again on the day of the semifinals, a historic day for the padel world and a record 9585 spectators were recorded, surpassing the previous record by 2,000 people.
5. Estrella Damm Comunidad de Madrid Master 2022 (8,500 spectators)
In fifth position we return to 2022 with the Estrella Damm Comunidad de Madrid Master. Once again on the day of the semifinals it was sold out, registering a turnout of 8,500 people on Saturday, September 24. Not only that, but during the week more than 30,000 World Padel Tour fans crowded the Caja Mágica.
As we have seen, most of these records have occurred in just the last few months, which suggests the fact that even those we mentioned will almost certainly be broken within 1-2 years at most. The reasons undoubtedly lie in the fact that padel is growing by leaps and bounds year after year with truly impressive speed and is embracing more and more countries around the world. Because of this, tournament organizers are also already preparing for, and are expecting in the coming years, even larger stadiums that can accommodate more and more audiences and are more and more state-of-the-art.
What if at this rate it comes to playing a padel match at Camp Nou? Okay, maybe we are going too far! And then you would be too far from the field to understand the movement of Lebron's vibora, better to enjoy it from closer and maybe, someday learn to do it like him…maybe.
