Panatta-Pietrangeli clash over padel: “But what pippe…”

The two titans of blue tennis have opposing views on the sport that has risen to prominence in recent years

Adriano Panatta in an interview with Agi responded to Nicola Pietrangeli, who had called padel “the triumph of wimps.” The former Italian tennis player strongly disagrees with his former colleague: “Macchè ‘triumph of the pippe’. I don’t agree with Pietrangeli at all, and I don’t understand how he came up with the idea of going and bothering those who enjoy padel, belittling it. He could have done without it.”

According to Panatta, padel deserves to become an Olympic sport: “I’m sure it will become one. It is a real sport, it has given birth to a beautiful movement and it is very social, both when playing and outside-I have never seen in the tennis world so many chats of players who, with the excuse of organizing the weekly appointment, socialize and joke with each other. More importantly, it feels much less lonely on the court than in tennis. Padel is a little easier than tennis, and improvements are seen sooner, but to admit this is not to exaggerate tennis purism. Because often purism becomes snootiness, and I just can’t stand snootiness of any kind.”