Padel in Latvia: a Gateway to Community

Sport has a way of bringing people together, and padel is no exception. The racket sport, which has taken the world by storm in recent years, is booming in popularity in Latvia too. Yet its appeal goes beyond the game itself. While many sports unite people around a shared passion, padel has a remarkable ability to turn casual encounters into genuine friendships.

What is it about the sport that makes it such a powerful social connector?

“There’s usually a bar in the clubs,”

laughs Carolina Cupcea who is now the proud owner of an “addicted to padel” sticker but comes from a tennis background.

On a more serious note, Carolina – originally from Moldova – confirms that padel “can start great friendships. I know that because I’ve seen it a lot around me.” In fact, it has helped her establish a wider network in Latvia, having moved here with her Latvian husband. Since trying the game for the first time with a colleague, Carolina has risen to ranking third in Latvia and become a coach. She plays padel five times a week.

Carolina explains that, since you play in groups of four, you end up hanging out together and often having drinks after the game, so the social aspect is intrinsic to padel. Additionally, “people don’t necessarily see it as a super competitive thing,” she explains. It’s really about enjoyment.

Padel: a Fun and Accessible Sport

Coach Aleks Pavulāns of Padel Club Riga echoes the sentiment. Padel is “easy to learn, and so people are motivated. It’s also fun,” he says, pointing to the sport’s low barrier to entry as one of the key drivers of its global growth.

“Padel will be bigger than tennis,”

Aleks is convinced. He also represents the Latvia Padel Federation, which is awaiting its formal recognition. The people behind the organization believe that the sport is deserving of its own federation rather than being placed in the same boat as tennis.

Another person to benefit from the fun and social aspects of padel in Latvia is Katerina Maouni. Originally from Greece, Katerina moved to Latvia through the European Solidarity Corps program but is now an agronomist/evaluator at the State Plant Protection Service. She too had no prior experience or even knowledge of padel but is now playing three to four times a week, taking part in leagues and tournaments. “After six months of playing I was already hooked,” she says of her journey that began with someone from her squash group suggesting they try padel.

“It started as something I just do to exercise, but it’s ended up being a very important part of my daily life. It’s helped me meet a diverse group of people that otherwise I wouldn’t have easily met and find a sense of community that I was partly missing before, being a foreigner,” 

Katerina shares of her personal experience.

Padel Is Not Just a Riga Thing

With so much growth, it is challenging to keep the statistics up to date and specify the exact number of clubs and courts in Latvia, however, Edgars Rauza of the Latvia Padel Federation is aware of new projects being developed in the regional cities of Liepāja, Jūrmala, Jelgava, and Cēsis, indicating that the popularity of the sport is far from limited to the capital city. Already now, one can play in Jēkabpils, Pāvilosta, Sigulda, Rēzekne, and elsewhere.

“Padel is growing in popularity because the clubs are getting closer and closer to home, so everyone is talking about the sport,”

Edgars explains.

With so much going on, the future sure looks bright for padel in Latvia!