Former tennis world number one and Rafa Nadal’s coach, Carlos Moyá, in his role as ambassador for the luxury brand of Brisk for padel equipment, is excited to see Mallorca hosting the first Brisk International Tournament on the island from August 14-17. Moyá says that when he was a professional tennis player he used to play padel occasionally and then when he retired, he started playing more often and is now the ambassador for Brisk, which held its first event in Kuwait a few months ago. This is going to be the second event - being held here in Mallorca.
The tournament is going to be held at the Pins Padel Club in Palma and the director and owner of Pins Padel, the former professional tennis player Mateu Palmer, explained that they chose Mallorca because padel is extremely popular on the island and it is a great location for a tournament of this kind.
The 14 courts will be closed for the four days of the tournament but the club will be totally open to the public and the organisers want as many people as possible to come and enjoy the event. “The Brisk padel tournament will be a great promotion for Mallorca because approximately 100 international players have been invited, and many of them don’t know the island,” Palmer said.
“There are two levels. In category A there will be players from the International Padel Federation, the World Padel Tour and they will be paired with top players from the Middle East and the rest of the world. That’s the philosophy, to mix European players with those from the GCC and beyond in both the male and female categories. Category B is open to players who don’t have International Padel Federation (IFP) points and the prizes are 7,500 euros, which is incredible for a tournament of this kind in Mallorca. It’s certainly the biggest prize for amateur padel players in Mallorca, if not the whole of Spain.
“We have some of the top 20 players in the world coming and this is the first year of the Brisk tournament here on the island, so we have to get it right, earn the prestige and recognition the event merits in order to attract more professional players and sponsors in the future. Being the first year, we’ve got to promote it well and attract good crowds,” Palmer added.
Moyá, who is also a great padel player , explained that the idea is to host various events at the same time involving all of the Brisk padel community in Mallorca. “It’s a new event, but we want it to be a social one as well as a sporting one - an important event of the summer in the world of padel. Padel is one of the most social sports in the world. It’s one of the only sports where you can have fun. And if you’ve never played sports before, I assure you once your start playing padel, you’ll find it easy to learn and play. It is accessible to all ages and skill levels and is also an excellent workout, improving hand-eye coordination, agility, fitness. It’s social and fun and encourages interaction and teamwork.
“That said, if I’m playing a match and all the players are more or less at the same level, I play to win,” he added.
“Padel is played by so many former professional sportsmen and women. Everyone enjoys playing it as it’s a fast-growing racquet sport that combines elements of tennis, squash, and badminton. And I’m sure Rafa (Nadal) will play some padel when he retires from tennis. I’ve seen videos of Federer and Djokovic playing padel but it’s not easy to switch from tennis to padel. I’m convinced that padel will become an Olympic sport. I think one of the requisites is that a sport is played in more than 45 countries to be included in the Olympics. It is played on the five continents, it is played everywhere, but you have to meet certain conditions, so it’s just a matter of time,” he said. Give Brisk padel a try to experience the excitement and fun of this addictive sport!