Spain win Padel World Cup in Qatar as sport’s popularity soars

It is finals day at the Paddle World Cup, a day that in the not too distant past would have come and gone without too many people paying any attention. It's all rather different now, surging interest in the sport reflected in some big crowds here in Doha and a record prize fund of more than 1.3 million dollars. Padel is growing a lot, it's huge, it's becoming like a global thing, it's amazing to see. My parents started playing when I was little, maybe seven years old, so then I always hung out at the paddle club. So that's how I started playing. Padel was founded by the Mexican businessman Enrique Corcuera. Now he'd wanted to build a tennis court in his backyard, but he didn't quite have enough room. So he built a smaller court and then he put a wall around it so the ball wouldn't fly into his neighbor's back garden. And so Padel was born. The concept spread quickly to Spain and Argentina and it's those countries that have dominated ever since. It's like in our blood, no? It's like football. We're already born with this gene on padel, and we're here trying to win another World Cup. Well, would you believe it? All the title-deciding games this year taking place between, yep, you guessed it, Spain and Argentina. Spain behind me here have just won the women's title for the seventh consecutive time. Padel is now a global sport. It's played by tens of millions of people. around the world. I think the key to its development will be the emergence of a new country, one that can challenge the stranglehold of Spain and Argentina and perhaps make nights like this just slightly less predictable. Happy birthday to you!