Paloma Cortina

1- I was born in Malaga, south of Spain, but I was raised in a town right outside Madrid, Azuqueca de Henares.

2- I was introduced to padel because they were building padel courts in my tennis club. They needed coaches so I got my padel certification and I felt in love after a few days playing. This was when I was 17 years old, but when I was 20 years old I came to play college tennis, and I didn’t play much for about 6-7 years. When I moved to Houston in 2018 I started playing padel again, and never stopped since.

4- I was ranked number 1 in the US in 2021 ans 2022, currently #2 in the race.
In tennis I was NAIA National Champion along with my team, Georgia Gwinnett College, and I was part of the All-American team

5- i like to bike, cook, and discover new places in the city or visit some place new

 

* What has been your proudest moment as a padel player so far?

My proudest moment as a player so far has been representing the US in the panamerican games in 2021. I got to play against some of the best people from Latinoamérica, and won 3 out of my 4 matches. Great team environment and fighting together as a team!
Also, being a coach of the US junior team was a great experience as well. Seeing how teams from countries like Egypt being represented in the world championship is truly something amazing! The level of a lot of junior teams was really impressive, and makes you want to improve both as a player and a coach.

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

I would like to be number 1 in the US again, and play some profesional tournaments if I can get some help from sponsors. Another big part of what I do in the daily basics is trying to grow the sport of padel, so I would like to keep coaching and making people excited about padel!

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

Most of us come from a tennis background, and I think it’s important to get worse so you can get better. What I mean with this is that you have to be willing to let the ball hit the wall, even though you are not comfortable with it at the beginning. Little by little the wall will be your helper and not your enemy. Another key skill I think it’s patience. A good padel player needs to be willing to hit the ball over the net over and over again, until you have a good chance to use a power shot and finish the point.

* How do you train and prepare for a big padel tournament?

I try to play padel every day if possible, and/or get some kind of conditioning. I like to do training sessions and also play matches so I can be fully prepared for the tournament. I also like to watch professional matches from WPT so it puts me in the right mind, and makes me improve strategically.