Jurgen Klopp shares a court with a tennis legend as he continues his padel story
Jurgen Klopp has made no secret of his love for playing pedal and now the former Liverpool manager has taken to the court with one of the tennis greats of yesteryear.
Klopp had a padel court installed at Liverpool’s training base during his time as the club’s manager, with many of his players catching the bug for a sport that is rapidly growing in popularity in Britain right now.
A mix between tennis and squash, padel is a fast-paced racket sport, with the court surrounded by a glass wall.
A cross between tennis and squash, hundreds of courts have popped up around Britain in recent years, as they look to catch up on a sporting craze that has long been a big passion for players in Spain and Argentina.
When Klopp stepped down as Liverpool manager in the summer of 2024, he was quick to suggest the extra time he had on his hands would be used to play padel.
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“Now what I’m doing, I try – no, no, I follow – my other big passion. I try to improve my padel game,” said Klopp, who has his own range of Wilson padel rackets.
“Started two days ago, today’s my third session and I started on an extremely low level. Didn’t play for a while and felt it immediately, but step by step I will get there.”
Klopp has regularly posted images of his padel adventures on his Instagram account and now he has included a post highlighting his match against Argentine tennis great, Gabriela Sabatini.
The 1990 US Open singles champion was also a finalist at Wimbledon a year later and she is a massive fan of padel, coming from a country that has long embraced the sport.
Having high-profile figures like Klopp and Sabatini promoting padel adds to the profile of the sport, with former British No 1 Andrew Castle telling Tennis365 that padel could have a huge impact in Britain in the coming years.
“I don’t see how padel can be viewed as a threat to tennis in any way,” Castle told Tennis365 at a Game4Padel event in London.
“They both have their own merits and should not be viewed as rivals in any way.
“I remember being asked about the comparisons between squash and tennis years ago and once again, those two sports work together in a complementary way.
“If we are looking to drive membership to tennis clubs and they can do that by offering padel as part of their package, then it can be good for both sports.
“We want to get more people coming through the door and part of the driver for that is padel, I don’t see that as a negative in any way.
“Padel is just good fun and people who like tennis will still want to play that sport. They might also want to play padel as well.
“If you are a racket club and you are not offering padel moving forward, then I think you will get left behind. It is an offering clubs have got to have.
“It is easier to get reasonably good at padel quite quickly,” he added. “Not to the level the top players operate at, but on a social level with your friends.
“You can enjoy a foursome in padel and have a rally pretty much straight away. In tennis, it is a little more difficult to do that as it is a harder sport to master.”
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