Heat Padel & Pickleball was already buzzing before the first balls were struck. By the time the evening lights came on, every glass court in Playa del Carmen was full, and players were still hanging on the fences to watch another rally. Local organizers say the second stop of the Circuito Estatal de Pádel brought a record field to the Riviera Maya, with 144 pairs signed up across men’s and women’s divisions.
The state circuit, created this year by the Asociación de Padelistas y Clubes de Quintana Roo, has quickly become the reference point for amateur players seeking formal competition without losing the club atmosphere. Playa del Carmen’s stop is one of the most anticipated weekends on the state sports calendar, with women’s draws in Third and Fourth Division and men’s draws from Second through Fifth filling the schedule from morning to night.
Padel in Quintana Roo finds its groove
That mix was on full display in the women’s Third Division final, where Erika García and Ziortza Lozano collected their second straight circuit title by beating Nakarina Rodríguez and Betina Gómez in straight sets. In the Fourth Division, Alexia Lope and Paulina Nava survived the tightest match of the tournament, edging Karen Vázquez and Andrea Fenton in a three-set battle decided by tiebreaks in every set. This scoreline had the small bleachers on their feet.
On the men’s side, the depth of the field stood out as much as the results. In the Second Division, Emiliano Moheno and Luca Biagi took control early in the final and never loosened their grip, closing out Leonardo Ruíz and Augusto Dargence in two sets. Third Division champions David González and Tomás Zebibden also needed only two sets against Ricardo Vázquez and Marco García. In the Fourth Division, Nicolás Soler and Ezequiel Sosa came back from a set down to turn their final against Alejandro Vela and Gustavo Silikovich into a physical, three-set turnaround. At the same time, the Fifth Division ended with another three-setter as Martín Presson and Javier Chodaszewski outlasted Alejandro and Raúl Martín.
Beyond the scorelines and medals, the event underlined how quickly padel in Quintana Roo has moved from novelty to a fixed date on the sporting calendar. Parents sat behind the glass, keeping half an eye on their kids and the other on the court. Players from Cancún, Cozumel, and the Riviera Maya swapped partners between matches, comparing shoe brands and racket models. Club staff talked about how, just a few years ago, tennis was still the default choice for many locals and how now their phone lines light up first for padel bookings.
That local surge mirrors what is happening nationwide. The International Padel Federation estimates that Mexico already has more than 630 clubs and around 2,300 courts, serving about a million recreational players and making the country one of the most active padel markets in the Americas. The Federación Mexicana de Pádel, founded in 1992 and now with over 130 affiliated clubs and thousands of registered competitors, sees local circuits like Quintana Roo’s as a bridge between club matches and national events and international tours.
Next stop on the state circuit
The Playa del Carmen stop also served as a test run for the next stages of the state circuit, which will move to Cancún from 3 to 7 December. There, matches will be split across Sportres, Prime Pádel, and Top Garden, three clubs that have helped anchor the sport’s growth in the state’s largest city. For players who left Playa with trophies, the quick turnaround means a short break before they are back on court trying to protect their ranking points and, in some cases, chase a clean sweep of the season.
For others, the Playa weekend was a first taste of organized competition. Some pairs drove down from Mérida or up from Tulum to try a state event for the first time, discovering how different match play feels with a referee, a schedule, and people watching from the stands. A few left having lost all their matches but were already planning return trips, convinced that the experience on court and the friendships made in the club bar were worth the nerves.
The circuit’s timing also gives it a good position in Mexico’s wider padel calendar. A recent report from Mundo Ejecutivo noted that Mexico now sits in the global top ten for interest in padel and is nearing 1 million amateur players, thanks to a rapid increase in the number of clubs since 2023. Sponsors that once only backed football tournaments now show up with banners and branded water bottles for padel weekends, seeing in the sport a mix of social play and constant action that keeps people at the club all day.
In Playa del Carmen, that meant full parking lots, crowded bleachers, and a steady line at the café window inside Heat Padel & Pickleball. Club coaches said the best part of the weekend came late Sunday, when most finals were done and a few exhausted players still stuck around to hit informal doubles with whoever was left. For them, the wins and losses will fade. The feeling of belonging to a growing padel community in the state is what will bring them back when the circuit returns.
