New Zealand finally has its first padel court after a three-year project at Riverside Sports Club at Mount Wellington in Auckland came to fruition.
On the court’s opening weekend, which was attended by over 100 people, Riverside Sports Club’s Director of Tennis and Club Development, Neville Pegg, said: “We believe having padel will take us to the next level… It has become obvious that regular tennis needs to adapt to survive and grow.”
The Riverside Sports Club’s padel project sees them win the ‘race’ to be the first to introduce padel to the Kiwi public. The Padel Paper reported a fortnight ago on Pacific Padel’s first project at Albany Tennis Centre in Auckland, led by Julian Brown and ex-All Black Troy Flavell. We’re now happy to correct that the padel court at Mount Wellington was definitively New Zealand’s first. The second is due to to open shortly at Remuera Racket club in Auckland, built by Game4Padel.
Court developers Kiwipadel – set up in 2020 by Diego Cueto – were behind the Riverside project, which is situated spectacularly next to the Tamaki River. Kiwipadel worked on the project with leading Spanish court manufacturer Portico, a company with a proud history of high-quality engineering who moved into the padel sector after building a reputation within the world of sports stadia.
Deputy Mayor of Auckland, Desley Simpson, attended the inauguration event and officially opened the court for play by cutting the ribbon together with Councillor Josephine Bartley and community leader Chris Makoare.
New Zealand’s first certified padel coach, Walter Sudour from Carter Tennis, opened the games, by playing a demo game with three other seasoned players.
Lucy Lawless, best known from the TV series, Xena: Warrior Princess, was one of the first players to try it out.
A national governing body, Padel New Zealand, has been established and it plans to hold national tournaments and assist in setting up international tournaments in collaboration with the International Padel Federation (FIP).
Riverside Sports Club’s long-standing coach Neville said: “I have been involved in most aspects of tennis for 60 years and have worked in many parts of the world. I was introduced to padel four years ago in Spain and started a modified form of padel at Riverside when I got back.
“This brought in many new members to Riverside which keeps the club financially viable. We believe having padel will take us to the next level.
“Padel is a great sport for players of all ages and skills as it is both quick and easy to pick up. We will now be the first club in New Zealand to launch padel and we are very excited to embark on this journey.”
Wictoria Markula, President of Padel New Zealand (pictured above, with foundation member Harry Fitzsimmons), added: “We are elated to have the first padel court in New Zealand, with many others to follow in the coming months and years.
“Riverside Sports has been working on setting up the first padel court in our country, together with Kiwipadel, for almost three years – and their hard work has finally paid off.
“The first court is a real milestone, and we look forward to watching our sport continue to thrive and grow.”
Guillermo Maldonado Ureña of Portico said: ““For over a year Portico Sport´s engineers worked closely with Kiwi Padel and Auckland´s council towards the adapting the structural design to pass the building permits local requirements. We are very proud of this achievement which reflects our engineering capabilities, and we hope this milestone to greatly contribute to the sport´s growth in NZ in the coming years”.
