South African Padel invitational draws elite players to Johannesburg
The 360 Padel | Gayle – South African Invitational tournament will happen 15 – 17 August 2025 at DP World Wanderers Stadium.
South African Padel Invitational media conference. Picture: Palesa Manaleng/ EWN.
JOHANNESBURG - August will see the best padel players gracing the shores of South Africa to compete at the South African Padel Invitational.
The 360 Padel | Gayle – South African Invitational tournament will happen 15 – 17 August 2025 at DP World Wanderers Stadium.
“We want to put South Africa on the map globally. We want South Africa to be taken seriously as an international paddle destination, having recently attended the world pedal summit in Barcelona, and looking at the growth of other countries, you know, the UK, the US, our market seems more enthusiastic than those markets, and they seem to have more of the limelight” said Mohammed Majan from 360 PaddleSA.
Majan tells Eyewitness News he, along with the other organisers, wants South Africa to be taken seriously as a paddle playing nation.
“We know as a nation, we always punch above our weight, whether it's in cricket, whether it's rugby, in athletics, you know, in soccer, we're getting there as well. We always want to punch above our weight, and we want to do the same thing with paddle and that's why we've chosen the venue (at DP World Wanderers Stadium), and that's why we've gone so big with this event, to show that we really want to be taken seriously on the sporting front.”
The 3-day tournament will feature South Africa’s top 12 teams (24 players) who will compete in their own prize pool as the curtain-raiser to the main global event.
“We have over 1000 courts across the country, we have over 250,000 players registered on the Playtomic app in South Africa, of which around 80,000 are considered to be active players, meaning they play at least one to two games a week” said Majan.
“At 360 we try to bring all the best players together. We've launched what's called the diamond League, where we've taken some of the best, I would say, 90% of the best players in the country, and we've put them together in a in a league which runs for over two months, where we give them the best place to compete against each other, week in and week out.”
The top players in the world from Spain and Argentina, like Agustin Tapia, Arturo Coello, Juan Lebron, Ale Galán, Fernando Belasteguín will compete against each other.
One of the players heading to South Africa is world number one in WPT (World Padel Tour), Argentinian Fernando “Bela” Belasteguín.
At age 22 Bela was the youngest player in the world to reach No. 1. Padel pair Juan Martin Diaz and Fernando Belasteguín were the only pair in history to spend 1 year 9 months undefeated, winning 22 consecutive tournaments (September 2005 to May 2007). They were also the only pair to hold the No. 1 world ranking for 13 years and to win 170 tournaments.
“We have Richard Ashforth and Egmond Van Heerden, who just broke into the world 500 recently. So they in the late four hundreds currently in the world rankings. We have a handful of players who have official FIP (International Padel Federation) ratings. So we have a handful of players who played in international tournaments and have now got a ranking.
Our best players are currently 400 odd, you know, in the world. So it shows you the gap. But our players are actually moving really quickly in the right direction.”
The 360 Padel | Gayle – South African Invitational promises to bring family fun with meet and greets, giveaways and a screen to watch rugby to activations, food stalls, giveaways, entertainment and more.