Padel and tennis might look like the same sport but they’re not.
Padel is usually played in doubles on a court a third the size of a tennis court and has walls around the court which players can use to their advantage. Unlike tennis, padel requires the players to use stringless racquets and the height of the ball being served must be at or below the player’s waste level.
This weekend, the World Padel Tour is in Portugal and fans who attended the recent match that put Juan Martin Diaz Martinez and Francisco Navarro Compan up against Miguel Lamperti and Juan Mieres Petruf witnessed something pretty frightening.
(Note: Start at the 3:39 mark)
With the win in sight for Juan Martin Diaz Martinez and Francisco Navarro Compan, the latter went to play the ball off a bounce and expected the surrounding wall to support his weight as he fell into it. Instead, the worst thing possible happened as the entire wall came crashing down on top of him. The 29-year-old was hospitalized after the freak accident but somehow managed to escape without any serious injuries as he walked off under his own power.
He probably would have liked the victory but he’s probably a lot happier about the fact that he escaped unharmed.
(H/T YouTube/World Padel Tour)
