25 February 2020 | Tennis West

After three long years of hard work and determination, Spanish twin sisters Vanesa Gonzalez and Silvia Gonzalez-quiñones will finally bear the fruits of their labor of love, when Perth’s first padel tennis facility, Padel Perth Reabold, opens at Reabold Tennis Club on Friday evening.

Despite the sport’s huge popularity in Spain, which sees some 3,500 clubs in operation, here in Australia, the sport still remains in its early infancy. And when the Padel Perth Reabold courts officially open on Friday, Perth will play host to only the fourth padel tennis site in the country, with other centres operating in Sydney, Adelaide and the Gold Coast.

Having played padel for almost 30 years, it had always been the twin sister’s dream to bring their passion to Western Australia and share the sports joy with others, and when life threw Vanesa a curve ball in 2016, she turned to padel for therapy.

‘After things didn’t go to plan in 2016, my sister Silvia and I decided to bring padel to Perth,’

‘We knew it would be a big risk, but it was something we believed in and it became my focus and my therapy,’

‘It’s been a long journey of three years and we’ve worked relentlessly to share our passion of padel here in WA,’ Vanessa said.

A mix between tennis with walls, and squash in the sun, padel draws on the fundamental skills of tennis, squash and racquetball. Played as a doubles game on an enclosed court with a stringless racquet, tennis ball and tennis scoring; play commences with an underarm serve with the ball allowed to be hit off both the back and sidewalls. Easy and fun for everyone, Vanessa says it’s what she loves most about the game.

‘Padel is a really easy sport to play, you don’t need any skills and anyone can play. The best part is, that it’s lots of fun and very social,’ Vanesa said.

Fully funded by the twin sisters, the brand new purpose built courts, were installed on site at Reabold Tennis Club by Padel Technologies, with the facility including three led lit courts, a coffee shop and a pro shop for everything required to play and enjoy padel.

‘We really wanted to recreate what padel looks and feels like in Spain,’

‘There’s a huge social aspect to padel which is why we included the coffee shop and pro shop,’

‘We want to create a real sense of belonging with social events and the give people the opportunity for people to play every week,’ Vanessa said.

With Perth’s very first padel centre set to launch and be open to the public from Friday 28 February, the ambitious twin sisters aren’t ruling out embarking on similar projects in the future.

‘It’s our goal to bring padel to as many people as possible,’ Vanesa said.

Padel Perth Reabold will official open on Friday 28 February thanks to Padel Technologies, Led Projects, Reabold Tennis Club and the Town of Cambridge. To find out more or register your interest in padel, head to https://playpadel.com.au/