Believe it or not, a decade and a half ago there were zero padel courts in Miami. Zilch, none, nada. Then Nalle Grinda arrived.
Fast forward 15 years, and with the opening of Padel X — a state-of-the-art, 10-court club smack dab in the middle of downtown Miami co-founded by Grinda and hospitality-industry expert Juan Pablo Leria — the South Florida metropolis is now home to an estimated 100+ courts and is quickly beginning to rival cities like Madrid, Barcelona, Stockholm, and Buenos Aires in terms of importance in the global padel scene.
A True “OG” of the Padel World
While Grinda, who grew up in France, focused much of his early life on tennis (and went on to both play No. 1 at UCLA for four straight years on a full-ride scholarship and compete on the pro tennis tour), it’s only fitting that he would be among the original pioneers who planted the earliest padel seeds in Miami — and the U.S., for that matter.
That’s because, while many people in the U.S. didn’t discover the world’s fastest growing sport until sometime around the pandemic, Grinda actually grew up playing padel on the original Corcuera court in Acapulco, Mexico in the early 1980s.
Just minutes into our conversation Grinda gets a sly grin on his face and asks me, “You want to see a really cool photo? I’m going to send you something that’s going to blow your mind.”
Seconds later, a slightly blurry Polaroid-esque image appears via WhatsApp and he continues, “So, that’s basically my first encounter with the game. It was in 1984, the lady handing me some pesos is Viviana Corcuera, the wife of Enrique Corcuera, who was the first inventor of the game.”
Grinda goes on to explain, “The reason I am there is because my father knew [Corcuera] through his traveling over the years and he invited [my father] back to Acapulco to visit. For a few years, it became a tradition for all of us to go visit Acapulco, and that’s how I discovered the game.”
The Injury That Changed the Course of (U.S. Padel) History Forever …
Of his eventual transition to focusing on padel, Grinda tells me, “I had a second shoulder surgery while I was [playing at UCLA], and when I graduated I decided I didn’t want to play tennis anymore. And then I re-discovered padel in 2001 or 2002.
There was an exhibition in the south of France with Juan Martin Diaz and all the top pros. I saw that and the evolution of the game. It was the first time I saw glass walls and the exits, running outside the court and all this, and I thought, ‘Wow! This is what I want to do.'”
And do it he did. Grinda immediately started playing competitively in France. Then, after watching the French national team compete at the World Championships in Mexico City in 2002, he decided to really get serious.
He tells me, “After seeing the super high-level Spanish and Argentine players at the World Championships, I decided to learn the proper way. So, I went to Argentina, to the mecca of padel in Buenos Aires called the Monasterio, and started training with [all the top players] and celebrities of the time. And a couple years later, I was No. 1 in France.”
Grinda held his title as French No. 1 for six straight years, and as his work schedule would allow, played as much as possible on the pro tour. He steadily climbed the FIP rankings, eventually getting as high as No. 42 in the world.
… and the Move That Changed the Course of (U.S. Padel) History Forever
In 2010, Grinda decided to move to Miami to pursue a real-estate business opportunity he felt he simply couldn’t pass up.
“I had to give up padel, basically, because there was zero padel in Miami at the time,” he tells me somewhat sadly, before quickly continuing, “But that’s where I started idea-ating… and then I met a guy, Adrian Beltramino, who was Argentinian and wanted to open a court in Miami Gardens in 2010. So, I started helping him with that and bringing some of my crew — and that’s how padel began in Miami.”
Grinda then went on to help build Miami’s second court at the home of Wayne Boich, a now leading figure in the U.S. padel world who is behind the ultra-luxe Reserve Padel clubs in Florida and New York.
“That’s where the game really picked up,” Grinda explains, saying, “We had a group called ‘the mafia.’ We started organizing some tournaments and flying over some pros from Europe. Then we started doing these Pro-Ams with them that really brought a lot of attention to the game in Miami. And that’s what generated the first few clubs opening around the city.”
Today, there are easily a dozen or more padel clubs in the metro Miami area, ranging from well-established standbys like Wynwood Padel Club… to the sprawling Ultra Padel Club (which will soon be one of the largest padel clubs in the world)… to much smaller, more low-key clubs like Pepper Padel, which Miami-born U.S. padel star Brittany Dubins has called out as her favorite club to play at when she’s back home in Miami.
And to this ever-growing list you can now add Grinda’s brainchild, Padel X, which just opened with 10 pristine MejorSet courts powered by Playbypoint’s software right in the heart of downtown Miami. Later this year, Padel X will also be opening two more locations in Boca Raton and West Palm Beach, Grinda tells me proudly.
The X-Factor
When I ask Grinda what differentiates Padel X from all of the other clubs popping up in South Florida and around the U.S., he gives me about a dozen different answers.
Being a complete sucker for vintage European tennis apparel, the one that strikes me the most is the fact that Padel X is the only padel club in the U.S. that has partnered with Lacoste. As Grinda gives me a virtual tour around the club, it’s clear this partnership runs deep, too, with Lacoste’s iconic green gator appearing on everything from the net posts to every piece of clothing in the pro shop.
Speaking of which, another thing that sets this club apart is that the Padel X-branded apparel you’ll find there isn’t just striking, it’s all made from recycled plastic. In fact, each item features a small tag with a number indicating how many plastic bottles were recycled in order to produce that particular piece. Even the benches outside the courts feature these emblems, as they, too, are all made from recycled material.
While Grinda is obviously proud of all these unique aspects and all the design, video, and lighting innovations that Padel X boasts, it’s also clear his main focus is on the sport itself. Of his inspiration to launch Padel X, Grinda tells me:
“In 2021 we had the opportunity from the World Padel Tour to organize an event [in Miami] in early 2022. Wayne [Boich of Reserve], me, and Dani [Homedes of Wynwood Padel] decided to join forces and I was the tournament director.
This was really the launch for me to realize that what had been a hobby for so many years — and something where I was was losing money… but with pleasure — could now become a real business opportunity.
When we finished the World Padel Tour Miami Open in February 2022, I came to the decision to sell all my real estate and begin building Padel X. And here we are.”
“Not… Even… Close.”
Between Padel X’s 10 new courts, Ultra Padel Club’s 29-court expansion, and at least a half-dozen other club openings on the horizon in the Miami area, I feel I must ask Grinda if he thinks Miami is anywhere near a saturation point for padel courts and clubs.
He pauses for a moment to think of how to best phrase his response and then says, “My answer to this is: not… even… close.”
Grinda immediately follows this up with numerous concrete specifics of why he believes this. “A city like Miami is comparable to Rome. In 2017 in Rome there were only 70 courts, which is a bit less than what Miami has today. And in Rome five years later, there are now 1,800 courts and only now are they getting to a mature level,” he explains.
He then quickly clarifies, “I’m not saying that Miami is going to have 1,800 courts in the next couple years, but I think until we have 800 or 1,000 courts in Miami, we’re not even competing against each other [as padel club owners]. We’re all just building a base.
We’re in a bastion of four million human beings in Miami. We’re a very Latin… very rich… very sporting population. I think honestly we’re going to have five to 10 years where all you see is expansion, expansion, expansion.”
Based on everything I’m hearing day-to-day, I have no reason to doubt him. And given Grinda’s incredible history with — and passion for — the sport, I also have no reason to doubt that Padel X will be one of Miami’s most unique and authentic padel clubs and help further establish the city as one of the most important and impressive padel hubs anywhere in the world.
You can visit Padel X at 141 NE 13th Terrace, Miami, FL, 33132 daily between 7 a.m. and 11 p.m. To contact the club, you can call them at (305) 515-0956 or visit their website.
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