The era of division in professional padel is officially over. For years, fans and players navigated a fractured landscape, torn between the established World Padel Tour and the ambitious Premier Padel circuit. This fragmentation, while born of passion and growth, created confusion and placed immense strain on the athletes. Now, a new dawn breaks. With the landmark acquisition of the World Padel Tour by Qatar Sports Investments, the force behind Premier Padel, a single, unified global tour has emerged for the 2024 season and beyond. This is not just a merger; it is a complete restructuring of the sport at its highest level, creating a ‘new world order’ for padel. This guide will break down everything you need to know to survive and thrive in this new reality. We will explore the details of the unified circuit, what it means for players both established and aspiring, how the new ranking system works, and the incredible global ambitions now set in motion for this explosive sport. The future is here, and it is unified.
The end of an era and the dawn of a new one
For over a decade, the World Padel Tour or WPT was the benchmark for professional padel. It took the sport from a Spanish specialty to an international phenomenon, building stars and captivating a growing global audience. However, the emergence of the player-backed Premier Padel tour in 2022, governed by the International Padel Federation (FIP) and financed by QSI, signaled a seismic shift. Players sought more control, better prize money, and a truly global vision. What followed was a period of intense competition between the two tours, often leading to scheduling conflicts and legal disputes. The players were caught in the middle, forced to choose where to compete. The announcement that QSI would acquire the WPT was the resolution everyone was waiting for. It marked the end of the WPT as a standalone entity and the birth of a singular, powerful professional circuit. This unification under the Premier Padel name is arguably the most significant moment in the sport’s history. It promises stability, a clearer path for athletes, a more coherent product for fans and broadcasters, and a consolidated effort to push padel into the mainstream. It is the end of a cherished chapter but also the beginning of an even more exciting one, filled with unprecedented potential for growth and professionalization.
Understanding the new premier padel circuit
The newly unified Premier Padel tour introduces a streamlined and hierarchical structure, mirroring successful models in sports like tennis. The 2024 calendar is built around four distinct tiers of tournaments, each offering different levels of ranking points and prize money. At the pinnacle are the four Majors, the grand slams of padel, which will award the most points and prestige. These events are designed to be the season’s highlights. Below the Majors are the P1 events, a series of significant tournaments held in key cities around the world. These are still top-tier competitions that will attract all the best players. Following the P1 events are the P2 tournaments, which provide more opportunities for a wider pool of professional players to compete and earn valuable ranking points. This structure ensures a vibrant tour throughout the year with varying levels of competition. The season will culminate in the Tour Finals, an elite event where only the top-ranked pairs of the year will battle for the ultimate title of season champions. This clear, pyramid-like structure, governed by the FIP, provides a logical pathway for players and an easy-to-follow narrative for fans, eliminating the confusion of the previous dual-tour system. The global calendar, spanning continents from South America to Europe and the Middle East, underscores the tour’s international ambitions from day one.
What the unification means for players
For the athletes, the unification of the padel tours is a game-changer, bringing both immense opportunities and new challenges. The most immediate benefit is clarity. Players now have a single calendar to plan their seasons around and one unified FIP ranking system to climb. This eliminates the strategic headaches and physical toll of competing across two separate, often conflicting, circuits. Another major positive is the expected increase in prize money and improved player conditions, a core motivation behind the players’ support for Premier Padel from its inception. The backing of QSI brings significant financial muscle, promising a more professional and sustainable career path for top players. However, this new world order also intensifies competition. With a single tour, the fight for ranking points and entry into the main draws of Major and P1 events will be fiercer than ever. Lower-ranked players might find it harder to get opportunities at the highest level. The expanded global calendar, while exciting, also means more travel and logistical demands. As one professional player noted,
This is what we fought for a single, strong, and global tour. It professionalizes our sport. The travel will be tough, but the reward is playing on the biggest stages for the recognition we deserve.
Ultimately, the unification empowers the players’ association, giving them a stronger, more unified voice in shaping the future of their sport.
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A new ranking system explained
A crucial element of the new unified tour is the consolidated ranking system. The ‘survival guide’ aspect truly comes into play here for players and hardcore fans. The new official tour ranking is the FIP Ranking, which has been carefully constructed to merge the histories of the two previous tours. To create a fair starting point for the 2024 season, the system combined the points players had earned from both the World Padel Tour and Premier Padel in 2023. This created a single, definitive list that accurately reflected a player’s performance across the entire professional landscape. From 2024 onwards, players will only earn points from Premier Padel tournaments. The system is based on a rolling 24-month window, where players defend the points they won at specific tournaments in previous years. The breakdown is clear the Majors offer 2000 points to the winners, P1 events offer 1000 points, P2 events offer 500 points, and the season-ending Tour Finals provide 1500 points. This structure heavily incentivizes performance at the biggest events. For players, understanding this system is vital for strategy; choosing which tournaments to play, managing their physical condition to peak at the right moments, and protecting their ranking points are all key to success. For fans, it makes following the race to become world number one a transparent and exciting narrative throughout the season.
The fan experience transformed
The unification is not just for the players; it promises a radically improved experience for the millions of padel fans worldwide. The biggest frustration of the dual-tour era was fragmentation. Fans had to subscribe to different streaming services, follow separate social media accounts, and keep track of two different ranking systems to get a complete picture of the sport. It was confusing and diluted the product. The new unified Premier Padel tour changes all of that. Centralized broadcasting rights mean fans will have a single, go-to destination to watch all the top-level action. This creates a more cohesive and accessible viewing experience, making it easier for casual observers to become dedicated followers. The tour’s official digital platforms and social media channels will now be the definitive source for all news, scores, and highlights. Furthermore, the focus on creating bigger, more prestigious ‘Major’ and ‘P1’ events elevates the spectacle. These tournaments will be presented as must-see sporting events, with higher production values, larger crowds, and a more electric atmosphere. The global nature of the 2024 calendar also brings the best players in the world to new markets, allowing more fans to experience elite padel live, many for the very first time. This consolidated approach is essential for building a global fanbase and turning padel into a major spectator sport.
The global ambition and the road to the olympics
The creation of a single, powerful global tour is about more than just ending a rivalry. It is a strategic move with a clear and ambitious long-term goal to establish padel as a major global sport, with the ultimate prize being inclusion in the Olympic Games. A unified and professionally run tour, governed by the International Padel Federation, is a prerequisite for any serious Olympic consideration. The International Olympic Committee looks for sports with a strong international governing body, a global footprint, and a clear, undisputed professional structure. The new Premier Padel tour ticks all these boxes. The involvement of Qatar Sports Investments, with its vast experience in global sports like football through Paris Saint-Germain, brings a level of business acumen and international influence the sport has never seen before. Their vision extends beyond the tour itself. It includes developing grassroots programs, increasing media exposure worldwide, and building the profiles of its star players. Luigi Carraro, the President of the FIP, has openly stated that the Olympics are the dream. While the road to Olympic inclusion is long and competitive, this unification is the most significant step padel has ever taken in that direction. It aligns all stakeholders from players and federations to investors under a single banner, all pushing toward a common, monumental goal.
In summary, the unification of professional padel under the Premier Padel banner is a watershed moment. It replaces a period of chaotic division with a new world order defined by structure, ambition, and unprecedented potential. The key takeaways are clear a single tour with a tiered event system, a unified FIP ranking that provides a clear path for athletes, and a vastly improved and simplified experience for fans. This consolidation is the engine that will drive the sport’s next phase of global expansion. While challenges regarding the demanding schedule and intense competition remain, the overall outlook is incredibly bright. The merger has professionalized the sport overnight, providing the financial backing and strategic vision necessary to compete in the crowded global sports market. For players, fans, and everyone invested in padel, this is not just a new season; it is the beginning of a new era. The journey to the top of the sports world has officially begun, and the future of padel has never looked more exciting or more certain. It is time to tune in and witness history in the making.
