AMARILLO, Texas (KFDA) – A new sport is swinging into Amarillo as the city celebrated the grand opening of its first padel courts at the Amarillo National Tennis Center.
Parks and Recreation partnered with the Alex O’Brien Tennis Foundation to make this project possible.
“Padel is the fastest growing sport in the world right now. They have 20 million players and they have about 40,000 courts worldwide, and so we’re excited to bring this sport to Amarillo,” said Alex O’Brien, founder of the Alex O’Brien Tennis Foundation and owner/president of BOC Bank.
Parks and Recreation Director Michael Kashuba says the new addition reflects the city’s commitment to expanding local recreation.
“Our goal is just to continue to improve racket sports in Amarillo, and I think that’s why this partnership is so important with Alex O’Brien,” said Kashuba. “You know, the city’s invested almost $1,000,000 in the facility between the lights, court resurfacing, some renovations on the actual clubhouse, and then the addition of these courts.”
The project took less than a year to complete through collaboration between the city and the Alex O’Brien Tennis Foundation.
“We paid for half, they paid for half. It was a great project to get more excitement around racket sports,” said O’Brien.
O’Brien described padel as a combination of tennis, pickleball, squash, and racquetball played on a smaller court with walls in play.
“My prediction is these courts will be packed and be full. I would say within probably a couple of months because it’s such a fun, interesting, unique, intellectually stimulating game,” said O’Brien.
The ribbon cutting event took place at 11:30 a.m. Sunday, followed by padel/learn-to-play instruction to give attendees a chance to experience the sport firsthand.
Kashuba says the courts are open under normal hours of operation.
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