The Alborán · The Court
The Court
Reporting from the padel court and from the rooms where the sport is run.
What lives in this section
Some Court pieces begin at a single club on a single evening, and follow how a place turns strangers into a four. Others begin with a document, a rule or a number, and put questions to whoever is responsible for it.
We look at equipment from the side of the player who pays for it, at markets few people are watching yet, and at the top of the game, where some of the club game's most ordinary habits go missing. When something has not been established, we say so.
The game deserves the attention cricket has had from its better writers. So do the people who run it.
More in The Court
The Alborán · 6th October 2026
Palas de madera, pistas de muro →
Carolina Navarro, born in Málaga in 1976, played her last professional match in Acapulco, where the game began. A reading of the public record.
See all of Issue Four →The Alborán · 7th September 2026
A Pool of Eight →
Padel joined the World Anti-Doping Code in July. The international testing pool is being built at eight athletes, and the figure came from the sport's own testing agency.
The questions we asked, and what came back →
Six factual questions put to the International Testing Agency, and its answers in full, unedited.
Showing the Working →
A note on how these pieces are being put together, what has been established so far, and what has not.
People Make Padel →
Racket Barn had been open five months when I got there. What it has built in that time is not a membership. It is a way in.
See all eight pieces of Issue Three →The Alborán · 3rd August 2026
The Racket Roulette →
An intermediate player, briefly without his racket, sets out to find whether he can tell one from another.
The 7 P's of the Southside →
Padel, Pickleball, Pilates, Pastries, Patience, People and Pato: the seven P's of a Castlemilk club built for its members, where the numbers said not to.
See all eight pieces of Issue Two →The Alborán · 1st July 2026
The Next Diamond in the Rough →
Everyone is looking at the United States this summer. Three markets nobody is watching are the more interesting bet.
Mixed everywhere but the top →
The mixed pair is the most ordinary thing in club padel and the rarest at the top of it. A look at why.
See all nine pieces of Issue One →The other sections
Issue Four · out now
Issue Four is out.
Free, in full.
The Alborán is out now. Membership is free, and always will be.
Andy Galt & Alex Robinson, Editors