The Qatar Tennis, Squash and Badminton Federation (QTSBF) announced that the state of Qatar will host the first category 1 event of the newly launched global padel tour. 

In an interview with local media held recently, the QTSBF Secretary General Tariq Zainal, said, “The new global padel tour was launched as a joint venture by Qatar Sports Investments and the International Padel Federation on the back of the success achieved, both at the organisational and technical levels, when Qatar hosted the first-ever Padel World Championship in November. The new tour will feature three categories including; category 1 (Grand Slam), 1000 points category and 500 points category, in addition to masters events.” 

“Qatar will host tour’s inaugural event of category 1 from March 28 to April 2 at the Khalifa Tennis and Squash Complex. A total of 56 teams will take part in the main competition and 32 in the qualifiers which start on March 26, with prize money of 525,000 Euros.” He added. 

Zainal also confirmed that the event will feature the participation of the world’s best padel players and wished the Qatari player can participate in the event without wild cards as the players will take part in the event as per their world ranking. 

He also added that the QTSBF will build a number of padel courts at the Khalifa International and Tennis complex to host the event like what happened in the Padel World Championships held last years. 

“The higher organizing committee began its preparations to host the event immediately after Qatar ExxonMobil Tennis Open and Qatar Total Open held in February. It’s a new challenge for the federation but Qatar is always keen to deliver the best possible sports events despite of all challenges and this year’s event is not different.” He said. 

Zainal meanwhile added that a GCC tournament was on the cards to promote the sport in the region while bringing international coaches to train youngsters and growing the base of players were the federation’s plans to progress padel in Qatar.