How professional padel works: tours, rankings and where to watch
Premier Padel, the FIP and a unified global calendar — a plain-English guide to how the professional padel season is organised.
By Padel Roundup ·
Professional padel spent years split between rival tours, which made the sport genuinely confusing to follow. That era is over: the professional game has consolidated under Premier Padel, the global tour run with the backing of Qatar Sports Investments and sanctioned by the International Padel Federation (FIP) — the sport’s world governing body. Here’s how the pieces fit.
The tour
Premier Padel runs a season-long calendar of tournaments across Europe, the Middle East, the Americas and beyond, in tiers modelled loosely on tennis: Major events at the top, then descending categories (P1, P2) with smaller draws and fewer ranking points. Both men’s and women’s competitions run on the tour, usually at the same events. Beneath the top tour, FIP-branded competitions (the FIP Tour’s various tiers) serve as the development ladder where rising pairs earn points and work towards main-draw entry.
Pairs, not players
The essential structural quirk: padel is a doubles sport, so rankings belong to individuals but everything on court happens in pairs. Partnerships form, split and re-form between seasons — and sometimes mid-season — which is a permanent source of drama. A pairing that looks unbeatable in spring can be dissolved by summer. Following the pairings market is half the fun of following the tour.
Nations compete too
Alongside the tour, the FIP organises international team competition, headlined by the World Padel Championships, where national teams compete every two years. Spain and Argentina have historically dominated — the two countries where padel matured first — but the gap is narrowing as the sport globalises.
Where to watch
Premier Padel streams and broadcasts through a mix of its own channels and regional rights holders, with coverage arrangements varying by country — the tour’s site lists current broadcasters per region. Highlights land on the tour’s official YouTube channel shortly after play, which is the easiest entry point if you’re new: start with a Major final, watch how long the points run, and notice how rarely the smash that would end a tennis point ends a padel one.
Following along
If you want a routine: check the calendar for the next Major, learn the top handful of pairs on each tour ranking, and pick a pair to follow for a season. Professional padel rewards the viewer who knows the partnerships — the tactics only fully make sense when you know who trusts whom on the left and right sides of the court.