The Joy of Padel podcast with Elena Martín

Elena Martín Ortiz is an accomplished padel player who was highly ranked in the WPT predecessor, the Opel Padel Tour, and has represented (and won with) Catalonia in the Spanish team championships. She is also a senior manager at Monitor Deloitte, the multinational strategy consulting practice of Deloitte Consulting, and in this role is coauthor of the 2023 Global Padel Report, published in collaboration with Playtomic. In this conversation, we discuss Elena’s life as a padel player, her best shots and funniest moments. We also discuss the state of padel worldwide, the unique Swedish case, and the global prospects.

To find out more about Elena Martín and the Global Padel Report:

• Find or follow Elena Martín on LinkedIn or Instagram
• Download the Playtomic/Deloitte 2023 Global Padel Report here.

To listen to the show:

To listen to The Joy of Padel podcast, you can use the embedded player above, or go find it on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or any number of other podcasting services listed here.

Send in your questions or reactions:

Please send me your questions — as an audio file if you’d like — to nminterdial@gmail.com. Otherwise, below, you’ll find the show notes and, of course, you are invited to comment. If you liked the podcast, please take a moment to review and/or rate it! ¡VAMOS!

Further resources for The Joy of Padel:

belastaguin | deloitte | Elena Martin | Elena Martin ortiz | global padel report | monitor Deloitte | Opel padel tour | padel | Playtomic | world padel tour

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

padel, play, tennis, court, deloitte, sport, elena, report, players, club, developed, helping, tennis court, people, podcast, tennis player, love, net, elina, Sweden, playtomic

SPEAKERS

Minter Dial, Elena Martín

Minter Dial  00:10

¡ Buenos días, chicas y chicos ! Hello and welcome, a very warm welcome to the Joy of Padel podcast, spreading and sharing the supreme delight of this wonderful and fast-growing game. I’m your host Minter Dial. And this podcast is brought to you by Padel1969 The largest manufacturer of premium padel courts, one quart for life by Padel 1969. The Joy of Padel is part of the Evergreen Podcast Network. For more information about the network, go and check out evergreenpodcast.com. So, this is the inaugural season of the Joy of Padel podcast. And to start with, we’re going to do an episode once every fortnight. Episodes will drop every other Wednesday at 12 noon, London time. Please let us know what you think about the show by putting up a rating and review.

So, for this 11th episode of the joy of padel podcast, it’s with Elena Martín Ortíz, commonly known as Elena Martín, who is an accomplished padel payor, and was highly ranked in the predecessor to the world padel tour, the Opel padel tour. Elena is represented and one with Catalonia in the Spanish team championships. She is also a senior manager at monitor delete the multinational strategy consulting practice of Deloitte Consulting in this conversation with Elena, we discuss her life as a padel player, her best shots and funniest moments. We also discussed the state of padel worldwide, the unique Swedish case and the global prospects for padel and much more. It really intriguing and exciting exchange. Vamos ! Elena Martín Ortíz, I know you go by Elena Martín. Great to have you on the joy of padel You are wonderful person I’ve been so excited to have you on in your own words. Elena, who are you?

Elena Martín  02:12

Very happy to be here. I was very much looking forward to this podcast, Minter. I am a professional in the sports industry and also a tennis player.

Minter Dial  02:31

Well, you also happen to work at Deloitte, right? And we’ll get into that a little bit afterwards. But let’s start talking about your route to padel, Elena. Naturally, since you come with a little accent, probably happened in Spain,

Elena Martín  02:45

Yes I did. So, I started playing tennis and not a very young age, but something like 10 years old. And then three years later, a couple of padel courts were built in my club that was back in the beginning of the 90s. So, my mom started to play in FIFA now. Why don’t you try? So, I started taking some lessons. I would play tennis and on top of that I played padel a couple of days, I played tennis a couple other days. I was not like a very successful tennis player. I was okay. But I was not at all the best in my country or my region even. And when I started playing padel, my coach, she suggested I should go to the Spain championship under 16. I was 15 at the time. So, I went in, I made it to semifinals, which was like, Whoa, I was made for this. Being honest, I think I was okay. It was good. But probably the little competition had a lot to do with that, compared to my success in tennis tournaments.

Minter Dial  04:09

And I assume it’s always that it’s a course are going to be question of your partner how you get long. How would you play together? And sometimes the draw is favorable, not so favorable. But in any event, this obviously set your alarm. And what was the discussion with your parents at this point? You’re like Mama and Papa, I want to go! I want to play padel! But tennis is a more noble sport. What is this padel thing?

Elena Martín  04:32

Oh, they were so happy with that. I mean, padel offered me, you know, went quite fast. Because of making these semifinals. I got like a scholarship from the Spanish Federation. It was not I mean, it wasn’t a big deal, but it taught something right. So, I started paying more and more and playing tennis less and less. Until You know, when I was 18, or maybe 17, already, I stopped playing tennis and only trained. I chained five, six days a week, I had my trainings at the club. And one or two days I can recall now were with, so the ones that were done by the Federation, so that were controlled and sponsored by the Spanish Federation. And then I started playing tournaments not only in my region, per se, I started traveling. At the point there was this tour called Opal padel tour, which was the proceedings for the European tour. And so, I started playing that. It was, it was changed because the sport was so underdeveloped, I would say that the in that role, there were professional players, but they were only sorry, also people like me, who are not professionals there was studying as much as towards working at the same time. And I would, let’s say do both things.

Minter Dial  06:16

Which is very common, for example, today in Britain, for the majority of the people who play a very good level, play a lot of tournaments, they’re bankers or they’re, you know, they’re doing what they can to make money. Because as the as the sport grows up, the winnings aren’t there yet. But obviously you’ve had a lot of success, you won lots of team events. At the Catalonia the Spanish team championships with the Real Club, the Polo, and you got really good at it. I’m wondering, you know, for you like me, I played a fairly good level of tennis in my youth. And I have this narrative around how padel and tennis are complementary. I’m wondering to what extent do you think padel helps your tennis? Because we always talk about how tennis can help with padel at the net, but not at the wall. But what about the reverse padel to tennis?

Elena Martín  07:10

It has helped me a lot. So, here in Spain, we play a lot, we basically tennis, in my, in my in my club, we have 30 Something, tennis words, of which one is hardcourt. And the rest I play. So, we’re not volleyball years. So, what now when I play and I play masters, when I play masters, I’m very good at the volume because I have played for so long. In a lot of my people I play against they say, Oh, you have a lot of resources because you can play drop short, you can play in the Mali you have a very good smash from anywhere in the in the court. And that’s that I developed 100% in in Japan, people who have developed themselves playing flee. They’re very good at the back of the sort of the envelope of the court. I mean, you can see Rafa, he barely goes to the net. Whereas I like padel, I’m very self-confident in it.

Minter Dial  08:15

It’s amazing. I totally agree with you. I mean, I ended up doing a lot even do a lot more chiquitos I will do many sort of half court lobs over. If they’re at the net, I want to come over and beat them up with that. And I feel very, very much. Yeah, exactly. Yep. It’s fun. Well, so hey, listen, that’s the complementarity of the sports. So, how would you describe your style of play? Today these days?

Elena Martín  08:44

You know what? In pattern, I am a very, I would say, conservative defensive player. So, I can hit in 1000 balls. I would so my opponents would like breakdown, meaning like, how many you get?

Minter Dial  09:04

Not again.

Elena Martín  09:06

Yeah, yeah. And I was very proud of that style, because it needs to be very tough in terms of mind and be very concentrated I would say. But you know what? This hasn’t translated into my tennis so very poor at hitting again and again in tennis. Like, I need to be very aggressive. I don’t know why but in

Minter Dial  09:34

tennis is by nature aggressive, because you need to push it through the other person whereas padel you got the wall behind you. Swim. Yeah. Right.

Elena Martín  09:45

Exactly. Exactly. When I was 18, or 19. I was sponsored by Dunlop. And they did these, like flyers like these cards that you would get weigh in tournament. I mean, no one wanted my cards right? Because they were better players, I mean professional players, but still, I had my cards. And so yeah, I sent you a picture of that. Previous to the call. And at the bottom of the card they were asking what is your favorite? How do you see your favorite hate to say like that shop was your favorite shop? And I said the lobby and my friends were saying how the hell can you be proud of have a I’m very good at doing lobbies like I go over everyone like I tell them this distance to the mall.

Minter Dial  10:44

And I love it. Well, you know, I’ve had on my show Gabo Loredo. And Gabo said that his best shot that’s his favorite shot. And I think smart padel players know I mean, Martin Dinenno, for example. I mean, his lobbing ability. I mean, of course, there are many great lobers but he’s very tranquil, and they just keep on landing between the service line and the wall. And, and what are you going to do with it? You know, that’s fun stuff. If you had to describe yourself as an animal on the court, then what animal would Elena be on the padel court?

Elena Martín  11:18

Oh, that’s difficult. That’s a difficult one. Um, I would say something like an ant, or a squirrel.

Minter Dial  11:28

Work. All right. I love it. I love it very original. You play on the right, I’m guessing?

Elena Martín  11:40

I do play on the right? And I usually play with aggressive players. And what I love best … I get along very well. I have had very few partners. And I love it when I do like Chiquita from the right to the right. And then they hit like they have to return it a little bit up. And then my colleagues, win the point. That’s my best hit or tactic.

Minter Dial  12:17

I like to say I’m the one of the one-two punch. So, I get the one in I make a little bit difficult make something happen. And then they pop it up. And number two, smack. Excellent. So, what about a shot that you’d like to improve? What shot do you work on that you feel like you could do better with?

Elena Martín  12:39

Um, I can’t do the vibora. I think it’s a modern shot that I was never taught. And the ball bounces that fast. When I told my opponents do that, it don’t is that fast? That I think it will help me a lot. And not sure if you do it from the right. And I think, I’m just thinking, you probably do it only from the left.

Minter Dial  13:03

You do. It’s mostly from the left, but you can still do it on the right. You could absolutely I may still try to do it. That’s for sure. On the right, pop it into the back blast last glass or sometimes even down the middle. And what about you I have

Elena Martín  13:18

also learned to hit it hard when I was younger, my heartbeat. So, bouncing back was not so good. But because people were fast. Now that I’m a masters. My heartbeat is quite okay because they don’t transmit as fast.

Minter Dial  13:37

Nice. You obviously know many people in the padel world. You have many friends who are pros. But notwithstanding your friends, who would you say are your favorite players in the female and male sides?

Elena Martín  13:58

In females, Alejandra Salazar. Yes. She’s also a friend, I wouldn’t say like best friend, but she used to be a friend too. I think all the players have all the things, like there’s very, there’s a probably Ari [Sánchez]. Paula “Dinamita” [Josemaria], I do like all of them very much. But I think Alejandra, she’s so mature. She’s so self-confident. She’s always like so constant, no mistakes. She may not be as brilliant as some others, but I love how constant in consistencies. And as for the guys, I like Arturo Coello very much. Yeah, both the guys who have played with Bela [Belastaguin] in the last previous seasons. I think they both learned the best from Bela. I’m good friends with him. And he has this purpose of teaching and helping the younger players. So, it’s like a win-win, right? He has this aim of developing young players at the age and the stage that he is in. And he can get benefit from that because they have the power that he doesn’t have at this point. And I think they both learned a lot of what he taught in the year, a year and a half that they played with Bela, they got very good things that he has, and developed into their own skills. Which means, like impressive!

Minter Dial  15:40

Indeed. Well, I’ve had the pleasure of having Mike Yanguas on my show because he speaks English. That helps! And you so you know a lot of players, maybe your anecdote couldn’t come from others. But what’s your funniest thing that’s ever happened to you around padel?

Elena Martín  15:58

Do you want to be that do you want to note I played a vital on one of the tournaments that we have here, whatnot, you wanted to do what’s not a mandatory was, let’s say not so prestigious. Yeah, procedures tournament, they were the final, it was like a good event. And I’m warming up. And there’s a ball that so my opponent keeps the net and it stays on her side. So, I thought over the net to get the ball and I broke the net. Like warming up, people like starting to sit there and there was seats and everything because it was quite developed at the point, the sport here. So, all the people at the entrances and getting into their seats and like it broke. It took like 15 or 20 minutes to put it back in place.

Minter Dial  17:02

I bet it felt like an hour. So, embarrassing.

Elena Martín  17:06

So, embarrassing. I’m never ever going for the ball over the net again.

Minter Dial  17:12

Well, in the realm of sharing them, Elena, this reminds me of one time when crossing over in a friendly match. I went to cross over [the net[ and put my leg over. And I caught my right leg, which was the trailing leg and I just fell flat on my face and Oh, blood on my hand. I mean, how do you do that sort of thing, right? It’s not even a very high net. But stuff like that! Elena, you play a lot of padel, you have a lot of great real friends in in, in the padel world. What is the life lesson that you feel that padel is brought to you?

Elena Martín  17:52

I always tell the story in when I have when I had job interviews. So, I haven’t had to experience a lot of effort in my undergrad or graduate studies. I did engineering. I was good at math. So, it was kind of practicing. But what I learned from padel is that when I started started, I was not the most talented player. I’m not the one, as I explained, who’s doing these like Gemma’s drop shot or I’m not that kind of magician. I don’t have a lot of magic, sorry to say. But I learned that by training more and like devoting a lot of time being very consistent, very focused, concentrated, I could play better than people that started from a better position than I do. So, I learned a lot about being tenacious, constant. You lose a match, it’s okay! Just keep on training again and again and again.

Minter Dial  19:16

I love it. Well, I think yeah tenaciousness good training and keep the confidence because you see some other show boaters and you’re like oh my god, how do they do that? It’s beyond our capabilities. I’m like you. I’m not overly you know mervilloso with my shots. But I consider this idea of always stay learning. Always keep in the mode of learning. How can I do better? And as we get older, of course, we have to deal with that.

Elena Martín  19:47

And also try to leverage what you can do. I’m playing against younger players, and I see they have this impressive Hour in there, people know that I can’t do. But if you play as lowball, in the corner with a lot of slides, and then they struggle to get it out from there. So, it’s like, try to play your weapons intelligently. And so power is not everything.

Minter Dial  20:22

Fortunately, for us, and so let’s, let’s now move into your work at Deloitte. Because obviously, you’re working in a very serious, large organization. And it was quite a surprise to me when Deloitte came out with a padel tennis report. I guess the first one was two years ago, three years ago, I’m not sure. But I mean, what was the story going on behind the doors as to making a report on this new game called padel? I mean, Deloitte not being Spanish, generally speaking, you imagine the sort of the worldwide Deloitte office saying what? What’s this… padelboard, platform tennis, pop? Pickleball? What is this? No, it’s neither. Tell us how you came around.

Elena Martín  21:16

We have some independence in the country. So, there’s some decisions we can make. Hey, happened following me, I have met some partners. And so, I have some relationships within Deloitte play padel. And actually, I met some male partners who wanted to compete in, in company, company competition. And they needed to have females. So, basically, they cherry picked females who, who would play right, so I met this group of guys. And one of them got approached by Playtomic, because they knew each other from somewhere else. And Playtomic had this idea because there’s no single institution that gives figures about padel, such as FIFA for pro soccer, or ITF in tennis. And so, they wanted to position themselves as the place to be, to go for public figures. And they told this to this guy, this guy knew that I have played with before, et cetera. So, he proposed to me, within my business group, we decided to do that. Because it’s been after the pandemic, it’s not being easy, in general, for consulting firms or professional services firms to hire, because people are more into the mood of startup being in so cooler jobs, right. And so, we thought, we thought that this could help us position consulting as a cooler job, because we’re doing when these padel these hyping sector. So, we decided to do the report with big Tommy. And that’s how, you know, happened. We did this first report, we had quite some success. And we have done some works in deals, meaning professional, paid deals after the first report, so I got a lot of insight and a lot of information after the first report. And then the second people were just very natural, it was really easy. Because update. Yeah. And I had all the information because I had been in touch with a lot of people after the person report. So, that’s how it came up.

Minter Dial  23:54

Well, I love that. So, there’s the notion of helping for recruitment, the image of Deloitte, making it feel young and cool. And then there’s also even the reality of possibly making business consulting, helping partners and investors to figure out how to, where to, how to build clubs and make money out of it. Makes a lot of sense to me. And the relationship with Playtomic, of course, is interesting, too.

Elena Martín  24:21

Yeah. Sorry. To interrupt you. The second part, the commercial part, and being in touch with institutions, and helping with business was a consequence, but honestly, I didn’t think of that when we produced the first report. It was so surprising to me, though it seems obvious now in hindsight. Yeah, and we have a very good relationship with big data. I think I think it the reports have proven a very useful and successful for both of us, so the relationship has ended. Stay natural.

Minter Dial  25:00

So, when does the 2024 one come out?

Elena Martín  25:05

We haven’t spoken about these yet. So, I need to catch up with them. But probably the beginning of next year, that’s what we usually do.

Minter Dial  25:11

Fabulous. So, in the report 2023, which I’m hoping you’ll be able to help others to get a copy of for those who are interested. You talk about, obviously, the lay of the land, how many countries are growing? And what so one of the highlights in the report latest report is about Sweden, of course, because Sweden has this spectacular growth. And as the report identifies, and I thought that was really interesting, that these unique reasons for its specifically hyperbolic growth, related to the pandemic, Ibramovich, the football player and all that. How do you think Sweden is going to pan out now that it’s sort of received tapering down, with some clubs closing?

Elena Martín  26:05

I think what happened in Sweden is that the supply, of course, so offer went over the expected long-term demand of the country, because of these specific circumstances that you just explained. So, labs will flow closed, and they will continue closing, I don’t think there’s much more to come in terms of closures, but it will, it will stabilize at the rate that it should have stabilized, if it hadn’t been for the circumstances. So, we in the report, and in the jobs, we have calculated like a penetration rate, meaning how many people can play in a country, and that depends mostly on the penetration of tennis, the culture of sports of the country, more specifically, the penetration of racquet sports in the country, then, like economic situation, meaning you need to be over a certain threshold to be able to afford it. And the availability and price of land in that comes in from the supply side. Because if land is very expensive, for example, in Paris, or in London, it’s more difficult for padel courts to develop their so it’s a profitable business. But depending on the how much is people is willing to spend in a in a match, and how much the land is costing, then numbers don’t even out or you can make, you can’t make a profit. So, there’s a play, of course, is lower.

Minter Dial  28:11

So, would you say that if you’re looking at a city and you want to bring padel to it, or and yet say you have an economically favorable situation, you have a good sporting legacy of racquet sports? Would you? Would you think that the argument with a tennis club is to eliminate a couple of courts in a bubble and put in four or five padel courts in there? Is that going to be more profitable for them? The issue, of course is oh, well, we don’t want padel here kind of thing with the existing members. But how does it work economically for a club that is tennis, that’s thinking of expanding the padel?

Elena Martín  28:51

In terms of economics, it plays out. Why? Because in the surface that you have two tennis players, you can fit up to 12 players, it depends on the size of the tennis court, because I mean, the lines are whatever they are, but at the margins, so you can either fit two or three by the court, so you could fit eight or 12 players. So, I mean, being fit if everyone paid the same numbers are very telling. The other thing about having these players who don’t want padel and so if you have a club that is large enough, and I would say large is ten courts, you will have people who will fill in those padel courts and it being so cheap. Using those two tennis courts, for one tennis court, for three padel courts or two is going to be fine for the tennis players. Usually, there are some people like you or me who play both. But people who are good tennis players, and they’re in in a very good form and they play regularly. And so they are not the first one to move into padel, because at the beginning, it is the move less, the distances are very short. So, they feel like they’re not doing as much sport. But there’s a lot of people who are not playing tennis because tennis is much more difficult technically, because the like the racket, you’re doing to hit the ball further from your hand.

Minter Dial  30:54

So, that’s two meters away, basically.

Elena Martín  30:56

So, the farther you get the ball from the hand, it’s more difficult. So, Table Tennis is easier than padel, padel is easier than tennis. And so there’s some people who are either they’re not so fit, or they technically can afford to pay to play tennis, and they will get into padel. And it’s also very social. There’s in my club, for example, I would say 70% of the people who are playing today are women. And because they can bring their kids to tennis lessons or something and they get together instead of having coffee and chatting. They play padel and they chat, because you’re so close to the other one. And at least they’re doing some sport. Some may argue that is not as hard or as requiring as a passport as tennis. Which maybe I mean, it’s something we could discuss. But at least these people are doing some sports, which way they wouldn’t do if they only have the opportunity to play tennis.

Minter Dial  31:56

Well, I wonder so the socialization the number of players on the court, whether you can charge the same amount is one thing, but for sure what that means is that you have 12 people who can go by beers in the club bar afterwards. And that has to be profitable. And I’m wondering and listening to Elena how many because of the social natures both of us know about the game, how many Padel love affairs sprout, because of a meeting on the padel court because it is such a social environment?

Elena Martín  32:30

I can tell you one very fun story. And let me first address your question. I honestly don’t think it’s so like lower fares, like, come out from padel match. But in my case, for example, you met someone at a gathering or at a bar or a pub or something. And you have the same interests as you’d say, Oh, why don’t we play next week. And so you get together and you play me, my friend, him his friend. And you have a beer or a Coca Cola afterwards. And so you start meeting each other. So, I used to have when I was young, because you share the same interests. Right. And the fun story I wanted to tell you is I knew well, Fernando Belastaguin, because I used to play this Opel Padel Tour. I was like something like 22 or so 21. He was 24. And he came to my club. We had a competition there from Opel Tour. And he was so he was expecting to make it to the final but he lost in the semi final. So, that was Saturday evening. And he called in and said Oh, I’m so upset and we lost blah, blah, blah. Did you see the match? And by the way, I mean, we have our hotel tomorrow and we have our flight tomorrow. Do you have anything to do? And I say Not really. So, let’s do something. So, I called my best friend. And we went out for dinner, Belastaguin and his partner, I think it was Lima at the time, my best friend, and me. And so they have ended up marrying each other. Yeah, so!

Minter Dial  34:29

A padel affair. Well, a padel-related love affair. That’s just gorgeous. Elena. Last zone I just wanted to talk about so upcoming. In your report. You talk about India and China. That’s the potential for them. It feels like they’re still very far away. It’s not like they have a tennis culture really. They’re not the economic climates in India is exactly you know, wealthy, like in Sweden or something. But give us an idea. Do you think it’s three or five years before we can start seeing numbers in India and China?

Elena Martín  35:07

That’s a very tough question. To start with, I don’t think it’s going to be 10 years, I want in more than five years. And I think India will come a little bit earlier in time that than China, the Indian government, as this, there’s like a regulation or something for the Federation, for which you need to have at least one court in every one of the states in order to be considered for a national federation. So, there’s already a group that is like investing in having one court in each of the states to have a national federation. So, I think this is going to deregulation or these normality is going to help the sport to develop faster in India, and it’s not booming, right when I mean, faster relative terms. But being that it needs to be developed in all of the areas at the same time will necessarily grow the number of courts that there are in the country.

Minter Dial  36:23

And Olympics in 2032?

Elena Martín  36:27

Olympics, Olympics in the origin, for me is the hot topic. There’s a number of requirements that you need to accomplish in order to really pick n, as far as I know, and I think that will be the toughest part. Since a couple of years, you need to so there is a maximum of summer Olympic sports that can be held, meaning you will have so you will have to take out some sport in order for padel to make it in, which for me will be the toughest part. Probably there’s some minorities parts that can be, but I mean, there’s an existing relationship existing programs in their countries. So, to me, that would be the key to make it Olympic in 2032.

Minter Dial  37:21

Like we say in strategy, or in French we say, choisir c’est renoncer…. You will have to make choices. And that will be the way. Elena, it has been a tremendous pleasure chatting with you. I love talking about padel and the future of padel, which is so bright. How can someone gather more about padel from what you do with your work and maybe even follow you as a padel aficionado?

Elena Martín  37:48

I don’t think they want to follow me on this!

Minter Dial  37:52

Well, I certainly want to play with you, Elena.

Elena Martín  37:54

Sure will make it easier to come to Spain or go to London and ask for the board we always will always have them in a Playtomic website, or anyone can download them on. They need to include their email just for follow up purposes, but it’s for free. It’s a free download open in the Playtomic website. So, maybe you can you cannot link in your in your podcast notes or somewhere.

Minter Dial  38:29

Por supuesto Of course. Hey, listen, Elena, muchas gracias, Vamos!

Elena Martín  38:32

It has been so much fun.

Minter Dial  38:37

So, I hope you’ve enjoyed this Joy of Padel episode. Please don’t forget to subscribe to be the first in queue for the next episode. And if you like what you hear, please do share it around with other padel aficionados. This is a sport that deserves to be played by absolutely everyone. And if you’ve got a story that you’d like to share, please send me an email or a better yet a voice note at NMinterDial@gmail.com With that, thanks for listening. And see you on the next episode of the Joy of Padel podcast. ¡ Vamos !