By THÉRÈSE MARGOLIS

More than 50 top international padel players — including both men and women teams — will face off in the last round of the 2022 World Padel Tour Open at Mexico City’s Juan de la Barrera Olympic Gym between Tuesday, Nov. 22, and Sunday, Nov. 27.

The competition will include 52 couples in total, 26 from the women’s category and 26 from the men’s category, as well as four wild card players.

This will constitute the first time that both categories will participate in the final padel open competition, prior to the padel master playoffs in Barcelona, Spain, which will run from Dec. 15 through Dec. 18.

“Padel is a relatively new sport, but has gained a lot of traction in the last few years,” explained Mexican Antonio Guzmán, one of the World Padel Tour organizers, speaking during a pre-game press conference at the Decathlon store in Mexico City’s Colonia Polanco on Friday, Nov. 18.

Decathlon is one of the major sponsors of the sport, both nationally and worldwide, and has developed an entire line of equipment and sportswear for padel under the brand name of Kuikma, derived from two Nahuatl words.

“We are particularly excited to be hosting the final open games in the Juan de la Barrera Gym, which was used during the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico,” Guzmán continued.

“Hopefully, one day padel will also become an an Olympic sport.”

Decathlon global padel and Kuikma brand director Juan de Vicente, who also spoke during the press conference, pointed out that the game of padel — a racket sport typically played in doubles on an enclosed court slightly smaller than a doubles tennis court — was, in fact, invented by a Mexican, Enrique Corcuera in Acapulco back in 1969.

The game has especially gained popularity in Argentina and Spain, but is also played competitively in Brazil, Ecuador, Panama, Chile, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, Belgium, Sweden, Italy and the Netherlands.

Notwithstanding, it has not enjoyed the same degree of popularity in Mexico.

To help promote padel-playing in Mexico, the World Padel Tour, in conjunction with Decathlon, has been working closely with the Benito Juárez municipality in Mexico City to open a public padel court that is due to be inaugurated in coming months, Guzmán said.