How padel arrived in Korea and became Seoul's newest social sport

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How padel arrived in Korea and became Seoul's newest social sport

Published: 21 Jun. 2024, 13:31 Updated: 23 Jun. 2024, 15:43

Spain's Arturo Coello, top left, and Argentina's Agustin Tapia return the ball during a match at the Italy Major Premier Padel tournament in Rome on July 12, 2023. [AP/YONHAP]

Tennis fanatic Kim Wan-su, 43, was at the 2017 Australian Open when he felt something hit his head.

It was a ball — but not for tennis. It had flown over from a padel court, installed on the grounds of the Open at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Australia.

That’s the origin story Kim, the president of the Korea Padel Federation, tells when speaking about his first encounter with the increasingly popular racket sport. Padel, popular in Spain and other countries in Europe, has been quickly making its way around the world — and recently touched down in Seoul.

There was silence in Korea when it came to padel, which is played on enclosed courts and falls somewhere between tennis and squash, when Kim found the sport — or it found him — in Australia.

“No information. Anything,” he said.

Kim, who quickly began to prefer padel over tennis, would spend the next few years collecting all the information he could about the sport before bringing it to Korea, launching monthly padel tournaments at a facility in Gimpo, Gyeonggi.

“It’s [the] perfect sport for Korean people,” Kim said.

“Korean people are very smart. Korean people are very fast. Korean people are every time, ‘hurry, hurry, hurry,’” Kim said. “So, Korean people can adapt this sport very quickly.”

Spanish player Bea Gonzalez, left, in the Hexagon Cup held in Madrid, Spain on Feb. 2. [EPA/YONHAP]

Once Kim set his sights on introducing the sport to Korea himself, he set out to establish a Korea Padel Federation. He didn’t have any knowledge of the federation process, and he said he struggled to draw interest as no one had heard of the sport.

“I tried to meet many people to make investments, but in two years, not anybody want to do that,” he said.

That’s when Kim decided to build his own courts, leasing out a building and funding the project himself — in early 2021, one of the heights of the Covid-19 pandemic.

He tried twice to order materials from manufacturers, in Spain and in China, but both shipments were canceled, he said.

So Kim drew on his background in construction and engineering, from where he was already familiar with places to buy steel.

“I visited there, and then checked the prices and then make the quotation lists and then make the drawing by myself,” he said. “And also practiced welding,” Kim added with a laugh.

Kim finally opened his facility, Padel Korea, in October 2021. Over the next two years, Kim would host a Korea Padel Tour about once a month, and each tournament would draw up to 200 people, he said, with many players traveling in from other countries.

Spectators watch a match at the Italy Major Premier Padel tournament in Rome on July 12, 2023. [AP/YONHAP]

“Every year, every semester, the foreigner exchange students visit Korea. They already know the padel, they already know how to play padel, they already enjoy the padel,” Kim said.

He also offered padel lessons, having obtained a teaching certificate before opening — in order to help keep his business afloat.

Kim closed down his padel facility in Gimpo at the end of March earlier this year, due to internal problems in his business, he said.

“I made it by myself and also I destroyed my padel club by myself. It’s very sad story,” Kim said.

But at the same time, sports and entertainment company Mmove got in touch with him about working on a new padel facility in the heart of Seoul.

Now, Kim is the director and an instructor at the Mmove Padel Lounge, with Seoul joining the list of global cities with somewhere to play a pick-up game.

The lounge, located on the roof of Yongsan I’Park Mall in central Seoul, opened to the public in April. There are four courts, which can be booked for hour-long periods. One typical weekday drew 100 people, just a couple of months post-launch, according to Kim.

People play padel at the Mmove Padel Lounge in Yongsan District, central Seoul in May. [MMOVE]

Many of his customers in Seoul were former regulars in Gimpo, he said.

While padel might have only recently arrived in Korea, it’s long been a beloved social sport in Spain.

“Padel we see as a social activity that involves a sport, makes you healthy, that gives you a vibe of being with your friends, spending good time,” according to Spanish Chamber of Commerce in Korea President Roger Royo, who sat down with the Korea JoongAng Daily at the Mmove Padel Lounge in May.

Spanish Chamber of Commerce in Korea President Roger Royo sits down for an interview about padel with the Korea JoongAng Daily. [MMOVE]

People in Spain pick up padel in many corners — whether at school or at a friend’s home, if they have a makeshift court, Royo said. It requires less dashing around the court, which is part of what makes it easier to pick up than tennis.

“If you are playing tennis, you are all the time following the ball. And then the ball goes to the other [end] and then you go, you spend two minutes catching the ball, coming back. You need the trainer, you need someone who tells you the technique,” Royo said. “Padel, since moment one, you say, ‘Okay, I can do this.’”

That was true for Kim, who began playing tennis as a university student but would spend hours on the court without seeing any improvement, he said.

“When I started to play tennis, I feel tennis is very difficult. And also, it’s not easy to improve my skill. So I remember that almost every day, I live in, I stay in tennis court,” Kim said. “But when I saw the first time for the padel in Australia, at that time, the bright lights and impact sound, and the racket [was] very short, I don’t need to give up.”

Kim Wan-su, second from right, is the president of the Korea Padel Federation. [MMOVE]

While padel has always been seen more as a social sport in Spain rather than an elite sport contested at the highest level, Royo said there are hopes that padel might become part of the Asian Games in 2026 and, later, part of the Olympics.

Padel has already made its debut on the international stage. It ran as a discipline at the 2023 European Games where a total of 24 countries sent at least one team across three categories — men’s doubles, women’s doubles and mixed doubles.

Spain dominated the medal table, winning gold and silver in men’s doubles, silver in women’s doubles and gold and bronze in the mixed doubles event.

For 28-year-old Andre de Bruyn, who works and studies in Korea, playing at the Mmove Padel Lounge has quickly become a regular fixture on his social calendar.

“Anyone who’s ever held a racket or a bat can play it,” de Bruyn said. “It’s kind of versatile in that way.”

While de Bruyn wasn’t necessarily lacking skill, having played squash since he was 12 years old and represented South Africa in the sport on the international level, he said there was still a slight learning curve for padel.

“It favors a calm tennis mind over attacking the net and positioning, whereas I’m very good at the back, playing off of the walls,” de Bruyn said. “It’s all about patience.”

De Bruyn, who moved to Korea in 2021, said he tried to find a place to pick up a racket, including badminton, but struggled to find a consistent group, especially amid restrictions due to Covid-19.

“I haven’t actually found anyone to play it with,” he said. And playing by himself wasn’t sustainable. “This is like the first time in four years that I’m getting into a semi-competitive mindset again.”

Practice at the Mmove Padel Lounge in Yongsan District, central Seoul. [MMOVE]

The lounge has become a place to connect with friends he doesn’t see very often otherwise, de Bruyn said, as many of them live far away from his home in Gangnam, southern Seoul.

“The social part is what makes it the best,” he said. “It’s not intensely physical. It’s silly, too.”

Since the padel courts in central Seoul opened in April, de Bruyn has tried to make it to a pick-up game at least once every two weeks. He’s in a group chat with about 30 people who take turns booking courts and sending out a call for anyone available to join a session, typically in the mornings before work.

“It’s not toxic or anything,” de Bruyn said. “It’s just dudes trying to get a padel game in. Which is nice.”

BY MARY YANG [mary.yang@joongang.co.kr]