search

Italy to host Premier Padel Major in May

Italy to host Premier Padel Major in May

Alkass Digital

The International Padel Federation (FIP), the Italian Tennis Federation (FIT) and Sport e Salute (the Italian Government’s sports agency) yesterday announced Italy will host a Premier Padel Major in May as part of a new multi-year tournament deal. 

Premier Padel is the official global padel tour, governed by FIP and backed by the Professional Padel Association (PPA) and Qatar Sports Investments (QSI).

The annual category one tournament, which will be known as the Italy Premier Padel Major, will take place at the historic ForoItalico in Rome from May 23 to 29.  

The Italy Premier Padel Major completes the roster of four Majors of the new Premier Padel tour in 2022, namely: Italy, France, Mexico and Qatar.

The Italy Premier Padel Major will offer 2000 ranking points to players, and also record prize money, in keeping with all “Majors” under the new Premier Padel tour.

Launched earlier this year, Premier Padel will host at least ten (10) new tournaments in 2022 – including four category one “Major” events. The first major – the Ooredoo Qatar Major 2022– took place in Doha in March. 

Together with the Italy Premier Padel Major in May, the other category one tournaments are the Paris Premier Padel Major at Stade Roland Garros taking place in July, and the Mexico Premier Padel Major at the Club Sonoma en Monterrey, México from November 28 to December 4. 

The first category two tournaments has also been announced in recent weeks with the Argentina Premier Padel P1 taking place in August. More announcements are to come.

The deal demonstrates the vision FIT and Sport e Salute have for padel in Italy– a country that is fast becoming one of padel’s biggest markets. According to data from the Padel National Observatory, grassroots padel in Italy has grown 5-fold since early 2020 measured by a number of padel courts; while the number of padel schools and clubs has tripled.

Nasser Al Khelaifi, Chairman of Qatar Sports Investments (QSI), said: “This is another momentous moment for the development of padel under the new Premier Padel tour, both across Europe and globally. Italy is a proud and passionate sports nation, and Rome provides another fantastic venue for the professional players to showcase their talent on the world’s stage.”

Valentina Vezzali, Undersecretary for Sport, Italian Government, said: “In the last two years, sport has shown great resilience and has achieved multiple results, giving Italy great satisfaction." 

"Padel has grown a lot in our country in terms of the number of enthusiasts and professionals and the fact that the synergy between FIT, Sport and Health and the International Federation has made it possible to host one of the four stages of the Premier Padel Major in Rome – immediately after the Internationals of tennis – it fills me with satisfaction."

Luigi Carraro, President of the International Padel Federation, said: “This is an incredibly exciting and special moment for padel in Italy. Thanks to the excellent work by sports institutions, clubs and players (both amateur and professional), our sport has grown enormously over the last five years – and it gives me great pleasure that we’ve been able to bring a Premier Padel Major to Italy. I can confidently say that fans in Rome, and the millions watching around the world, will be treated to some world-class Premier Padel action at the ForoItalico next month.”