This weekend’s inaugural US Open Padel Championships are the biggest event ever staged by the US Padel Association – and at the helm of the sport’s American governing body is an Englishman.
Martin Sweeney, from Washington, Tyne and Wear, was elected as President of the US Padel Association (USPA) in June last year. He leads a seven-strong Board of fellow volunteers and oversees five committees covering governance and finance, club and player membership, Team USA, competitions and junior development.
The first ever US Open Padel Championships at Padel Haus Dumbo in New York from 4-6 October will be the pinnacle of the NOX USPA circuit of 80 tournaments that takes place all over the States.
The men’s and women’s top division will be a 64-player draw with matches live streamed throughout the tournament. All main draw matches will be played at Padel Haus Dumbo, while some Division 2 and Division 3 matches held at neighbouring venues in Domino Park and Williamsburg. Players will be competing for a $15,000 prize pool which is distributed equally between men’s and women’s divisions.
Martin told The Padel Paper: “We could well be sitting here 10 years from now with a tournament that’s being screened across multiple networks with massive crowds – but we have to begin somewhere.”
The USPA’s ambition is for the US Open to become part of the FIP circuit and for the States to have six to eight FIP RISE events by next year. Further ahead, they’d like the US Open to be part of the Premier Padel calendar.
The USPA is recognised by FIP as the sole governing body of padel in the USA. Padel’s development in the USA is at a very early stage, but the rate of growth is rapid with 25 new clubs opening in the first half of 2024 and over 100 on the governing body’s national database. USPA is supporting FIP’s push for inclusion at the Brisbane 2032 Olympics and has no plans to amalgamate with the US Tennis Association in the same way as the UK, France and Australia.
“Our position is to offer support for anybody who needs or asks for it,” states Martin. “We don’t impose any rules or regulations on anybody, but if you want to be part of our NOX USPA circuit of competitions and comply with padel’s global dynamic, then you need to become a member. We’ve done a lot of good work connecting with clubs and we’ll soon be launching a national inter-club team tournament.”
Martin’s personal padel journey began in 2009 when he left the UK for Spain but couldn’t find enough people to play squash with because everybody played “this weird game called padel.” He became hooked immediately and played for 18 months in Marbella before moving to Dubai to develop his business in air cargo brokering.
He found no padel provision in Dubai so decided to take matters into his own hands. He led a project to construct three padel courts at the Emirates Golf Club in 2013 (pictured below). The sport is now absolutely booming in the region. “I guess you could say I brought padel to the Middle East,” he laughs.
His next move was to Las Vegas and in 2019 he opened an eight-court padel facility with a clubhouse – what was then only the seventh padel club in America. The venue went on to host the Senior World Championships in 2022. In summer of last year, Martin became the USPA’s fifth president since its inauguration by Mike May in 1993.
“It’s difficult to keep count with the number of padel clubs now,” says die-hard Sunderland fan Martin. “We have at least one club opening every week.”
An emerging business model amongst the clutch of new clubs in the US is to offer several racket sports – tennis, pickleball and padel (and occasionally squash – a sport that cracked the IOC’s door code last year). Martin envisions a future where these sports grow alongside each other: “We see a lot of clubs and commercial operations adding pickleball and padel together which we think is a great model.
“I do think padel will have slower growth than pickleball, principally because pickleball has a lower cost to entry. But I think pickleball has probably reached its height in the USA and as people begin to identify and play padel, we’ll see people crossing between the two.”
