Padel in Pakistan: how to start playing, and why courts are springing up

Few sports have arrived in Pakistan as quickly as padel. A few years ago the country had only a handful of private, residential courts. Today the game has its own federation, more than a hundred courts and even a place in the national cricket team's training routine.

What padel is

Padel is a racket sport that borrows from both tennis and squash. It was invented by the Mexican businessman Enrique Corcuera and is now especially popular in Spain and Latin America.

The basics:

• It is almost always played as doubles, on an enclosed court roughly a third of the size of a tennis court.
• The walls are part of the game: the ball can be played after it rebounds off them, much as in squash.
• Scoring follows tennis, with points, games and sets.
• Every point starts with an underhand serve, which makes the game far easier for beginners to pick up than tennis or squash.
• A typical match lasts between one and two hours.

How padel arrived in Pakistan

Mamoon Qureshi, secretary general of the Pakistan Padel Federation (PPF), first encountered the sport in Dubai and set out to introduce it at home, where at the time there were no commercial courts open to the public. Karachi and Lahore led the way.

By March 2025 the federation counted 36 clubs in Karachi, 32 in Lahore and 11 in Islamabad, with smaller numbers in Hyderabad, Bahawalpur, Peshawar, Faisalabad and Multan. It reported 127 courts nationwide, though it acknowledged that none yet met international standards.

The PPF is affiliated with the International Padel Federation (FIP) and has provincial bodies in Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan and Islamabad. In March 2025 Mohammad Aziz Khan of Peshawar became the first Pakistani player to compete in an FIP event, in Hong Kong.

Public courts and cricket camps

Local authorities have begun to back the sport. In June 2025 the Capital Development Authority auctioned five sites in Islamabad for padel courts on a fixed-rent basis, with each winning bidder required to build two courts and run them commercially. Courts were already operating at F-6 and the Diplomatic Enclave.

Padel has also reached elite cricket. The Pakistan Cricket Board has installed courts at the National Cricket Academy, and players on extended camps are scheduled for roughly 40-minute sessions every other day, with coaches saying the movement patterns help fielding.

How to start

• Find three partners. Padel is a doubles game, so the simplest way in is to book a court with three friends.
• Start with the basics. Focus on the underhand serve, keeping the ball low and letting it come off the back wall before you hit it.
• Take a lesson. A short coaching session will teach you positioning, which matters more in padel than raw power.
• Wear proper court shoes. Running shoes are not built for the quick sideways movement the game demands.
• Thinking of competing? Under FIP rules, players, coaches and clubs must be registered and licensed to take part in national and international events, so contact the PPF or your provincial association.

For a sport that needs only four players and an hour, padel has found a natural home in Pakistan's busy cities.