Bulgaria hosts first-ever international padel tournament

A historic event for Bulgaria in one of the world’s fastest-growing sports took place in Sofia, CE Report quotes BTA.

For the first time ever, the country hosted an international padel tournament under the auspices of the International Padel Federation (FIP).

Padel, currently the second most popular sport in Spain after football, with around 6 million players, is rapidly developing in Bulgaria as well. The goal of the International Federation is for padel to become an Olympic sport by the 2032 Games.

The sport's development in Bulgaria reached a milestone with the first FIP tournament held at Padel Club Sofia, located in the Tsarsko Selo complex. Just like in tennis, the FIP tour features different tournament tiers: Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum. Winners of Bronze tournaments earn 40 points in the world rankings; Silver – 80 points; Gold – 150. The calendar also includes 4 major tournaments and a year-end finals event for top-ranked players.

Starting in 2025, the FIP Bronze Sofia tournament at Padel Club Sofia will be part of the official FIP calendar. A total of 61 pairs registered for the inaugural edition.

The men’s champions were Denis Perino (Italy) and Ignacio Albornoz (Argentina), who defeated Alejandro Camero (Spain) and Clement Geens (Belgium) in the final with 6:3, 6:3. Albornoz is ranked 54th in the world, Perino is 57th, and the duo was seeded No. 1 in the draw.

Bulgarian players Toni Neykov and Venjamin Niv received wild cards into the main draw. Georgi Stoyanov and Evangelos Bogris (Greece) advanced through the qualifiers, while Nikola Tuparov and Stoyan Dinchiyski, and Martin Harizanov and Rumen Goranov entered the round of 16 as “lucky losers.”

In the women’s final, Spaniards Paula Ferrani and Natalia Paniagua claimed victory over fellow countrywomen Maria Teresa Gomez and Bianca Serejon with a score of 6:4, 7:5. Bulgarian pair Karina Dimova and Diyana Mitev played in the main draw with a wild card.

“We are extremely happy to have had the opportunity to host the first international tournament in Bulgaria,” said Janosh Broglie, President of Padel Club Sofia. “The players were impressed by the conditions, the courts, the overall organization, and the level of competition. We even had participants well above the typical level for a Bronze-category event. The greatest reward for us was hearing that the tournament felt like a Gold-category event. This first event on the International Padel Federation calendar is a very important step in the sport's development in Bulgaria,” he said.