Padel is the fastest growing sport in our country. Many practitioners do it at a recreational level, but in North Holland there are two clubs that play in the Premier League. The Amsterdam ‘De Padellers’ and ‘Groeneveen’ from Santpoort-Noord. The last team features a former tennis talent who has completely found his niche on the padel court.
Until he was 21, Mees Sporken put his whole heart and soul into tennis. Successfully for a long time. The great tennis talent won the European title among youth up to 14 years in 2008. Partly due to a wrist injury, a definitive breakthrough was not achieved. “I was convinced that I would make it.”
“Lots of fun”
Now Sporken has regained the joy of sports with padel. “I am very happy that I have found a new sport that I have a lot of fun in.”
This weekend, Groeneveen convincingly defeated opponent Cromwijck from Woerden 4-0 in the final round of the winter competition. The padel club from Santpoort-Noord ends up in third place. And that just doesn’t get you a play-off ticket. “Unfortunately, but overall we had a good competition.”
The Padellers from Amsterdam did better with second place in the rankings. This means the final for the national title this Sunday against reigning national champion Peaks from Utrecht.