duplicate......

This is possibly aimed at Bob. I saw the LTA is partnering with padel 4tennis association and today Simon Briggs in telegraph arts about how padel is taking Spain by storm. I noticed there is a world padel tour , largely in Spain, a little in south America, but there is a tour event in bishops park in London in October. 

It looks like a sort of mini tennis played in a cage. But apparently it gets big crowds and TV in Spain. 

Anyone played it, seen it played, etc ?

The Optimist wrote:

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Just very briefly when passing some courts in Spain.  Looked like a kind of cross between tennis and squash with kind of oversized table tennis bats and what looked like a foam ball.  Four players were on the court IIRC.  Certainly seemed like they were having fun.

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 Love padel. Doubles only, no singles. Balls slightly softer - like the green balls that the older kids use before they transition onto standard tennis balls. You only use chopper grip so no changes as per tennis and underarm serve. Very accessible - within minutes you can be thwacking balls over the (lower) net and the balls are never far away apart from the odd one that sails out over the top of the court. You can sort of play it at any level and have a lot of social fun, but obs it can be played at a much more advanced level where your taking balls off the walls, using angles etc in a similar way to squash and racketball. Seems to be growing in the UK, despite the weather - astro probably best, but can be slippy & balls heavy when wet, so not playable all the time. The players below look like the more recreational variety..