Ahead of America’s racquet week in Miami we look back at an exclusive interview with Dani Homedes, one of the key figures in the development of the city as America’s padel mecca. Homedes is founder of Wynwood Padel Club, one of the original clubs in Miami as well as Co-Owner of the Eleven Eleven Hexagon Cup padel team. He has been hugely influential in developing the sport globally and it is no surprise that padel in Miami has become such an unstoppable force since his involvement.
The First Step
Having grown up in Barcelona playing tennis, Homedes was always surrounded by padel courts as it started to take off in Spain in the 80’s. Whilst tennis was always the priority, he played some competitive padel at the under 14 and under 16 level before heading off to college to take his tennis career up a notch. With this love for racket sports being ingrained in his way of life, Homedes took it upon himself to develop the padel scene in his new hometown of Miami. In 2016, he founded Wynwood Padel Club, the second club in the city and what is now considered to be a “pioneer padel club in the states”.
Homedes recalled the beginning of this journey saying “for the first year or two the adoption of the sport was slow, it was mainly just local Spaniards at the club, we had no foreigners and no Americans”. However, the pandemic changed this all for good. All indoor sports were forced to close and everyone flocked to the likes of golf, tennis and padel! As a result, they experienced a period of 3-years with close to 95% occupancy rates. With the recent surge of club openings players have now got many more club options, however, Wynwood still remains busy with many of its founding members.
Professional Padel in Miami
With the first ever US Premier Padel P1 event being held at the Miami Beach Convention Centre next week this is a hugely exciting moment for professional padel in Miami and the US. In 2017, Homedes was involved in bringing a World Padel Tour event to Ocean Drive, Miami. This was a landmark moment for the Miami padel scene and in 2022 they cemented their involvement in the future of the sport by hosting the World Padel Tour Miami Open thanks to huge support from the likes of Nallé Grinda and Wayne Boich, two figures still at the heart of the padel revolution.
These two events have helped to setup the city to host the Premier Padel P1 next week which alongside the Racquet X event will bring much of the padel industry to Miami for America’s so called racquet week.
“Racquet sports mecca is going to be Miami for the month of March”
What Next?
Homedes is very much of the opinion that this is just the beginning for Miami and the US as a whole. He said “there are lots of opportunities for everyone. Padel is starting to grow across the rest of the country, and even here in Miami there is a lot of room for more clubs. A lot of padel businesses are starting to base themselves here but I think that there is room for everyone to enjoy the opportunities that the sport provides.”
We very much agree with this outlook and think that the upcoming week with the likes of Racquet X and Premier Padel taking centre stage and drawing the attention of industry leaders from across the globe will be a huge moment in kickstarting the growth of the sport across the US.
