The Circuit

The lead note

Padel is being played this week at the Salinella Mediterranean Park in Taranto, and on Friday it will have its first Mediterranean Games medals. The competition opened on Saturday 22 August and closes on Friday 28. It is padel's debut in the programme as a medal sport, in men's, women's and mixed events.

The Games are run by the International Committee of the Mediterranean Games, which describes them, for the countries of the Mediterranean basin, as "the most important multi-sport event after the Olympic Games". The first were held in Alexandria in 1951, and they have run every four years since. Taranto is the twentieth edition and runs to 3 September.

FIP's summary of 13 August reads: "Eighteen nations, eighty-eight athletes and three competitions on the programme." It breaks that down: "A total of 49 men and 39 women will take part, with 17 countries in the men's doubles, 14 in the women's doubles and 12 in the mixed doubles." At a Games the unit is the country.

The draws were made on Friday 21, the men's first round was played on Saturday with the women's opening matches later the same day, and the mixed began on Sunday. Quarter-finals run on Tuesday and Wednesday, semi-finals on Thursday. FIP's programme gives Friday 28 August over "entirely" to the medals: the bronze matches in all three categories through the morning, then the mixed final, then the women's, then the men's. Matches are best of three, with tie-breaks and the Star Point. Eurovision Sport is carrying it live to what FIP calls "a record 244 countries and territories".

The early rounds have begun. Spain's Jose Diestro and David Gala beat Tunisia's Helloumi and Halali 6-1, 6-1, and France's Yoan Boronad and Timeo Fonteny beat Egypt's Aboulkassem and Nasr 6-4, 6-4. Spain's second seeds Lucia Sainz and Patty Llaguno beat Montenegro's Matjevic and Simonovic 6-1, 6-0. In the mixed, Slovenia's Simon Javorsek and Tina Lah beat Serbia's Acimov and Mirkovic 6-3, 6-1. Monday's afternoon session began at 17:00 CEST with the number 1 seeds Guille Collado and Pol Hernandez making their debut. The mixed quarter-finals begin at 10:00 CEST on Tuesday.

Taranto is one of several. FIP's own account of the run begins at Krakow in 2023, where, it says, "padel was present for the first time as a medal sport at a continental multisport event". Santa Fe's South American Games, from 12 to 26 September, have it "officially included among the medal sports". The Asian Games at Aichi and Nagoya follow from 19 September to 4 October, the Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games in Riyadh from 13 to 21 December. Istanbul's 2027 European Games have it confirmed in the programme, following its inclusion in 2023. FIP says that "the growth of Padel and the Olympic dream also pass, but not exclusively, through multisport events". Five medal events fall inside about eighteen months, from this week to Istanbul.

This week in the game

There was no Premier Padel event. The London P1 finished on 9 August and the Comunidad de Madrid P1 does not open until Saturday, so the tour has been dark for a fortnight.

The Cupra FIP Tour's week belonged to the FIP Gold at San Luis in Mexico, for €60,000. Lucia Martinez and Lucia Peralta won the women's title from a set down, losing the first 1-6 to Camila Ramme and Brittany Dubins before taking 6-0 and 6-1. Juani Rubini and Alex Chozas beat Alex Ruiz and Franco Dal Bianco 6-2, 6-7, 7-6 in the men's.

South America qualified for the World Cup at Asuncion from 20 to 22 August, with three places in Doha at stake. Paraguay took two of them, its men undefeated, and Chile's women took the third. The World Cup is played in Doha from 2 to 7 November.

Amendments

Where we change something we have already published, and why.

The Archive piece in Issue Two says the International Padel Federation was founded on 12 July 1991 at the Club de Golf La Moraleja in Madrid. Our own verification file for that period gives only "Madrid", and a draft of ours on the 1992 World Championship puts La Moraleja at that championship. That read as a contradiction, so we went looking for an error.

We did not find one. FIP's own publication of October 2024 says the federations met "in Madrid at the Club de Golf La Moraleja". The 1992 Worlds were played there too. Both are true, because the golf club housed a padel centre run by Rafael "Fali" Silvela, one of the people behind the federation.

One thing did change. The piece said the associations sat down "in the clubhouse of" the club. FIP says only that they met at it, and no source records the room. The page was changed on 16 August and now reads "at".

The correction

Edition №4 said 136 athletes from 18 Mediterranean national federations would compete at Taranto. The word athletes was ours: FIP's release of 16 July gives "136 total participants". Participants is not athletes, and we should not have swapped it. №4's page carries the correction.

The athlete figure is 88. FIP's release of 13 August says "a total of 49 men and 39 women will take part". We cannot account for the 48 between the two from the releases, and we have not asked FIP.

The federations moved as well. The 16 July release lists nineteen delegations, Algeria among them, with Athletica Vaticana outside the eighteen as a guest. The 13 August release lists eighteen, Athletica Vaticana inside them for demonstration purposes and Algeria absent. Between the two releases the count held at eighteen while the names inside it changed.

The week ahead

The Comunidad de Madrid P1 opens on Saturday and runs to 6 September. The FIP Gold in Belgrade and a FIP Bronze in Madrid both run to Sunday. Europe qualifies for the World Cup in Madrid from 22 to 26 September.

At home, 32 padel county championships sit on the LTA's 2026 calendar, and its guidance sets a national window: "County Championships expected date 23 to 30 August 2026 (Counties do have the option to use an alternative date dependent on venue availability and other events)." Warwickshire drew 107 entries across seven events at Kenilworth Tennis Squash and Croquet Club over the weekend.

From the club

Issue Two has been live since 3 August. Episode Two of The Sessions, with Jethro Binns of Padel Levels, went up on 11 August, on ratings and grading. Issue Three publishes on 7 September.

See you at the club.

How this was compiled. The Taranto material is desk work from the organising body and the federation. The Mediterranean Games themselves are described in the words of the International Committee of the Mediterranean Games. The padel competition, its field, its programme and its day-by-day results are from the International Padel Federation's own releases: padel's debut as a medal sport, 16 July, the multisport run, 15 August, the field, 13 August, the programme, 19 August, the distribution, 20 August, day two, 23 August and the mixed quarter-finals, 24 August. The rest of the week is from the same federation's calendars, event pages and releases: the Premier Padel calendar, the live page, the San Luis champions, 23 August and the Asuncion qualifying report, 23 August. The domestic note is from the Lawn Tennis Association's own documents and database: the Padel County Championships Guidance 2026, quoted verbatim, and the LTA competitions database, searched under the padel tournament category on 24 August. The observations are the editor's own.