Mateo Coles

1. I was born and raised in Haiti, and now I currently live in Miami studying at the University of Miami.
2. One of my family members plays a very big role in the growth of padel in the US. My cousin is married to a guy named Wayne Boich who has a court at his house and so for fun during covid I started to play there.
3. I started during covid and I started taking padel seriously and training for about a year and a half.
4. I’m currently ranked #28 in the US for padel and before padel I used to ride horses and my biggest achievement was winning a gold medal at the Junior Olympics in 2018 in Argentina.
5. My interests and hobbies are sports and family. My world revolves around sports, and in my spare time I like to spend time with my family.
6. One thing they probably don’t know is that I was born in Haiti.

 

* What are your goals for your padel career moving forward?

My number 1 goal is to be a professional internationally and try to become one the best players in the world. As the PPL starts this summer, that is just the beginning of my career. I’m training every single day and during the summers traveling to Europe to train and to reach my goal. Padel has become my a part of my everyday life, I live and breathe padel.

* What do you think are the key skills needed to be successful in padel?

I think that there are many key things needed to be a successful padel player. Fitness is obviously the most important, a lot of people forget that the mental part of sports plays a huge role and I’m still learning that myself. To be able to to stay focused and create decisions while you are playing is absolutely key in my opinion. Mentality is everything.

* How do you stay motivated to keep improving and striving for success in padel? / What motivates you?

The reason I stay motivated is my hunger for becoming a better person and athlete every day. Every single day I train I want it to be better then the day before. I want to prove to myself that I can be someone and that if I stay focused and discipline myself it is possible. Also what keeps me motivated is the excitement knowing padel is growing so fast globally and especially in the US with this huge tournament coming up. I want padel to be one of the biggest sports in the world one day and I want to be a part of that.