Gyms, sports clubs, hotels: more and more locations are choosing to add padel courts to their range of sports facilities.
There are currently over 8,500 padel courts in Italy – with an increase of 16% in 2023 alone.
The number of members and regular players has also grown exponentially, many of whom find padel to be a fun, physical activity which gives them the chance to meet new people.
For the owners and managers of sports and leisure facilities, it is also an investment which offers significant benefits:
Most facilities use artificial turf for their padel court surfaces, as it is now preferred to synthetic resins and concrete.
We start out from the assumption that an artificial turf surface for a padel court must be made for the game and the players.
This means that the surface of a padel court must guarantee – in addition to the requirements laid out by the federation's rules in terms of hardness, elasticity and roughness – a series of characteristics to allow the sport to be played in a correct and healthy manner:
In order to guarantee this performance, manufacturers of artificial turf for padel courts have developed specific solutions for the sport.
There are three types of artificial surfaces for padel courts currently available: fibrillated, with straight filaments, or with texturized monofilaments.
The latter is undoubtedly the best in terms of technical performance and aesthetic appeal.
They are filaments made via a thermal-mechanical process – texturization – which guarantees that the filaments maintain their defined dimensional memory and their characteristic curly appearance.
Supercourt XN artificial turf for padel courts, developed by Mondo laboratories in collaboration with the most important international federations and tournaments, is a surface featuring a combination of two texturized monofilaments which work in a complementary fashion.
The structure, grooves and ribbed parts of the filaments – with thickness ranging from 160 to 250 microns – were defined through an interesting R&D process, to guarantee the best ball bounce and optimized speed of play.
The texturized filaments are also designed to encapsulate the sand inside the turf surface, to minimize wear of the fibers and balls, guaranteeing greater durability for the surface.
Both the straight and texturized monofilaments are sewn onto special supports and finally attached to the propylene backing using resins or polyurethane (the preferred material thanks to its resistance and durability).
Once this process is complete, the surfacing is found in the form of rolls ready for installation of the artificial turf on the padel court: a fast and simple operation, when carried out by qualified professionals.
The correct maintenance of an artificial turf padel court surface requires little in terms of time and cost, providing a playing surface which is always ready for use and accessible throughout the year.
It is sufficient to schedule regular inspections and basic maintenance activities for the padel court surface in order to guarantee the best quality of play at all times, and avoid the onset of aesthetic or functional problems.
This applies in particular to outdoor padel courts.
While they are designed to effectively withstand UVB radiation and the elements, artificial turf surfaces are nevertheless susceptible to wear due to a series of variable factors:
The procedures for correct maintenance of a padel court consist of:
Cleaning the surface of the padel court
Facilities with padel courts which are always clean and tidy are undoubtedly more successful. We recommend that managers/owners of sports facilities schedule quick yet frequent visual inspections, with any residue to be removed from the surface.
Brushing the surface
This should be carried out regularly in order to guarantee the correct distribution of sand, alongside a check on the quantity of the infill. A regular and uniform infill guarantees optimum ball bounce across the entire court surface, and at the same time reduces the risk of injury for players.
Court irrigation
Did you know that water is your best friend when it comes to cleaning and maintaining the artificial turf surface of a padel court? It removes impurities and helps stabilize the surface. For outdoor padel courts, this action is performed by the rain. For indoor courts, monthly irrigation is sufficient.
Once or twice a year, depending on the type of surface chosen, it is recommended to schedule extraordinary maintenance, in particular for decompaction of the infill as well as to allow for inspection – and repair, where necessary – of the seams and any worn elements.
For those wishing to delve deeper into the topic, please refer to the article “Correct maintenance and cleaning of an artificial turf padel court surface "
The service life of a padel court depends on the quality of the artificial turf, the hours of use, its exposure to outdoor agents (for outdoor padel courts) and, above all, correct maintenance.
The factors which can be influenced to help ensure that the renewal of a padel court's artificial turf is not needed for as long as possible undoubtedly include constant irrigation, and inspection of the stabilizing infill.
Uniform distribution of the silica sand across the surface of the padel court protects the surface from the abrasive action of players’ shoes and prevents premature tearing of filaments.
Signs indicating fiber wear – which could, over time, require replacement of the artificial turf padel court surface – are present on the court itself, in the form of filaments or fragments of fibers detached from the surface.
Another important sign is reduction in play performance.
Non-optimal ball bounce or non-uniform grip make the game more difficult and tiring, and represent a non-negligible risk to player safety during games.
When the time comes to replace the artificial turf on a padel court, the resurfacing procedure for renewal of the padel court can be performed quickly and safely, naturally with the support of qualified technical personnel.