Alicia Cañellas is a typical Spanish girl - not too tall, brown eyes, black hair in a plait, slightly tanned skin. She also likes to read and listen to music. Behind Cañella's looks is a young sportswoman with ambitions; the 17-year-old plays padel, a popular trend sport in Spain, and has already won several tournaments.
"You have to have discipline for this sport and be very organised - even when it comes to everyday life," says Cañellas. Every day, she trains for between one and a half and three hours with a ball and racket. There are also daily fitness sessions of one hour each. These consist of workouts with weights, sessions on a stationary bike or stretches on the treadmill. If you want to take part in competitions, Cañellas emphasises, you have to push yourself physically. Alicia also pays attention to her diet and visits a psychologist.
The game that Cañellas has dedicated herself to is one of the fastest growing sports in the world. According to the International Padel Federation (FIP), around 25 million people around the world actively played the sport last December.
Padel could be described as a mixture of squash and tennis. Like squash, it is played in an enclosed space with a net in the centre of the court. The walls of the court are an integral part of the technique-orientated game, in which players are allowed to hit the ball after it has bounced off a wall.
"In padel, it's always two against two," says Alicia Cañellas about her favourite sport. "That's why it's important to have confidence in your partner in order to win." Her doubles team is set: "Here in Mallorca, I always play with the same partner, she's a friend of mine."
Alicia Cañellas was born and grew up in Palma. In Portixol, Molinar, she enjoys going for walks by the sea with her grandparents. "I really like life here on the island," she says. At the same time, she is planning to move to Madrid to take her game to a higher level. She is already building on a successful foundation; at a young age, Cañellas won many prizes at national and social tournaments in Mallorca.
"The most important one was second place at the Benjamín World Championships when I was eight or nine years old," she recalls.
"What I like most about padel is that you get to know lots of people," Cañellas enthuses about her sport. She herself got into it through tennis, in which she became Mallorcan champion at the age of nine. "But because my sister played padel and my father ran the padel academy, I also started playing padel," explains Cañellas. "I really like this sport!"
Her father, who founded the training centre in 2005, introduced Alicia and her sister to the sport. Alicia's sister was already a world champion in padel. "She will always be a role model for me," says the younger sister. “I want to follow the same path as her”.
According to Alicia Cañellas, there is a real boom in padel in Mallorca. A lot of people are playing this trendy sport. The game originated in Mexico at the end of the 1960s, from where it came to Spain in 1974. Today, padel is the second most popular sport here and in Argentina after football. Beginners are advised to hit the ball against the walls as an important part of padel and to choose shoes specially made for this sport to protect the Achilles tendons.
"Padel is my hobby and hopefully my profession in the future!" says Alicia. She knows that she has to work hard to achieve this goal and takes comfort in the fact that her move to Madrid will allow her to see her sister again, who lives there.
Cooperation with TUI
Support from the tourism industry: the project is sponsored by Europe's leading tourism group Tui and its Tui Care Foundation. The initiative was founded in 2016 with the aim of supporting sustainable projects in the destinations. The foundation focuses on the potential of the tourism sector as a driver of social development, education and prosperity. The Group promotes sustainable tourism in cooperation with local people.