The president of the International Padel Federation (FIP), Luigi Carraro, has told Relevo in an interview that women will be playing in the next tournament organized by Premier Padel – that is, after the Ooredoo Qatar Major, which took place from Feb. 28 to March 6. “If we’d had a few more weeks” to complete the negotiations, the women would have played in Qatar as well, he said. “Having these tournaments combined, the same week, has a very high value,” he continued. “The two products” – male and female play – “are excellent products.”
Premier Padel’s next tournament is the Italy Major, scheduled for July 10-16. For now, the announcement on the International Padel Federation’s website mentions only the male competition. (Premier Padel’s website has no content at present.)
Other tournaments under the FIP umbrella do feature female players. The Cupra tour, for instance, held the FIP Rise Australian Padel Open back in January with both male and female players. The same goes for FIP’s Promises tour, whose first tournament of the year will be in the Dutch city of Eindhoven on April 1-2.
The World Padel Tour (WPT) – Premier Padel’s main competitor, opponent in litigation (see here and here) and potential partner – systematically includes women and mixed play in its tournaments.
In the same interview, Carraro commented on the thorny relations between the two pádel powers: “We want to build; we cannot permit there to be wars.” Premier “has its doors open to all,” and “whoever wants to join us will be welcome.”
As for next season, when player contracts with the WPT expire, Carraro said: “I must respect the confidentiality of conversations at that level, but the Tour’s structure for the future is very clear: there will be a Major category, then P1 and P2, and then the FIP Tour. I want to make it clear that we, as Premier Padel, are never going to be the organizers of a tournament. Every trial has to have its management and promotor.”
