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Meet the world's top padel player

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Meet the world number one padel player

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Have you ever played padel?

It's described as a mix of tennis and squash, and it's growing in popularity, with more than one million players in Britain, according to the Lawn Tennis Association.

This August a professional competition is coming to London Premier Padel P1, which sees the elite men's and women's players playing professionally for the first time in Britain.

Nina and some young fans had the chance to meet world number one player Arturo Coello.

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What is padel?

Figure caption,

Watch as De-Graft learns to play padel...

Padel is usually played in pairs and uses the same scoring system as tennis, only on a slightly smaller court.

A big difference to tennis is that the court is enclosed and players can hit the ball against the walls to give the game a different, fun feel.

The racquet has a solid, firm face with holes in it, rather than strings.

The balls are similar to tennis balls but are smaller and a bit less hard.

A lot of first-time players say some of the best things about the game are that it's easy to understand the rules, and playing in doubles means it's sociable too.

padel courts seen from aboveImage source, Getty Images

One of the downsides right is that it can be expensive to play padel.

That's because there aren't that many courts around as the sport is still growing.

According to the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA), there are currently around 800 padel courts in Britain, but hundred of thousands of players trying to play.

And with the sport being fashionable right now, it can be tricky finding an affordable place to play.

Did you know: Padel was originally created by Mexican businessman Enrique Corcuera and his wife, Viviana, at their holiday home in Acapulco, Mexico.

Enrique added walls of up to four metres on each side to prevent balls from escaping onto neighbouring land.

The sport eventually spread to Spain and to Argentina where its popularity took off and there are now more than two million licenced players.