Updated on May 15, 2025
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga retired from competitive sport in 2022 and is now a shareholder and Chairman of the All in Group, which specialises in racquet sports. Having come to the Principality to discover the two padel courts at the Monte-Carlo Beach, the tennis player explains the reasons behind the success of this sport that everyone is talking about and has some 70,000 registered players in France.
Padel: sport or leisure?
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga: Even for me as a tennis enthusiast, I’d say padel offers an even greater sense of conviviality than tennis.
Conviviality – the word that comes up all the time when talking about padel.
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga: Yes, it puts a 5-year-old on an equal footing with their grandmother, sister or parent. The success of padel is undoubtedly linked to its accessibility and how much fun it is to play.
How do you explain this sudden enthusiasm?
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga: I would start by mentioning its accessibility. It’s not only financially accessible, but it’s also and above accessible in terms of its ‘playability’. It’s a sport that doesn’t require hours and hours of practice to be able to enjoy playing it with friends. I think that’s what makes it so popular today.
Do you think padel has what it takes to become a major global sport, including at the Olympic Games, where it could be making its debut in 2032?
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga: Of course! If it had been included in 2028 I wouldn’t have been surprised, because in four years’ time, padel will be even more developed than it is now. It has all the characteristics needed to be an Olympic sport. It’s grown enormously recently, not just in Europe, but all over the world. It is continuing to grow in the United States, despite the popularity of pickleball, another sport that competes with it to some extent.
Isn’t there a risk that the current success of padel will be to the detriment of tennis?
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga: On the contrary, I think it’ll bring more people back into the clubs, with that familiar ‘club spirit’ we love in tennis. The two sports complement each other. There are, in fact, just as many people still playing tennis.
Could you say that padel is a cousin of tennis?
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga: I may not make many friends by saying this, but for me, tennis is the king of racquet sports, simply because there’s so much of it on television. Watching a top-level tennis tournament is truly spectacular and very visually pleasing. In our society, tennis is the expression of a certain art of living. It remains one of the world’s leading sports.
Are you saying that tennis has a certain nobility about it?
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga: Yes, absolutely! And padel is all about conviviality: it’s more about playing than watching.
Would you and the All in Group like to continue developing padel in France, including on the French Riviera?
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga: Absolutely. I often come down to see our padel centres in Grasse and Mougins. And we have other projects in the region. We choose the sites, build the courts and operate them. We also organise competitions. The group has various activities in the sports and events sectors. We organise tournaments at venues that we own and operate, including padel centres and tennis country clubs. All in also has a teaching branch with All in School approved by the French national education authority. We run academic courses for our young people studying sports science.
Do you think the enthusiasm for padel will wane?
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga: At All in, we have about a hundred young people currently enrolled in our sports and tennis studies programme. We also have a padel sports science programme. We believe that this sport will continue to grow enormously. Joining the Olympic family will make it a major sport, and it’s clear today that young people love it.
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