The WPT guide – here's everything you need to know
The 2021 World Padel Tour season is here.
The WPT site is a bit difficult to navigate, so here's a simplified guide to help you understand how the world's best padel tour works.
The Tournament
The men's side
In most cases, except for the final Masters, the WPT men's events are played through three different rounds: pre-qualifying, qualifying, and the main tournament. Which round you enter depends on your ranking and how many players are entered in the tournament.
Pre Previa (Pre-qualifying)
If you are among the lowest-ranked of all the registered teams, you will already play in the first round of Pre Previa. A total of three rounds will be played of Pre Previa, where depending on your ranking, you can enter the first or second round.
Previa (Qualifying)
If you've made it past round three of Pre Previa, you'll have to wait for round two, Previa, which contains the final qualifying matches before the main tournament can begin. Depending on your ranking, you can also enter the second round. The Previa usually kicks off on Monday, after Sunday's Pre Previa.
Cuadro (Main round)
This is where the WPT tournaments are held. The "Main Round" begins with the Round of 16, but as in Pre Previa and Previa, the highest-ranked pairs get to skip the first round and go straight into the Round of 8. The main tournament starts on Wednesday.
The women side
The women's side of the WPT tends to differ slightly from the men's side because there are fewer women's teams than men's teams competing.
Pre Previa (Pre-qualifying)
As on the men's side, some teams enter the second or first round of the Pre Previa depending on their ranking. The difference is that on the women's side, there are usually only two rounds you have to get past instead of three as on the men's side. Pre Previan usually kicks off on Monday on the women's side.
Previa (Qualifying)
Like in Pre Previan, there are two rounds to get past on the women's side. On the men's side, it's usually three. Previan usually kicks off on Tuesday on the women's side.
Cuadro (Main round)
There is no difference between the men and women at the WPT when it comes to the main tournament. The ladies, like the men, start the main round by playing the round of 16. And just like on the men's side, the top-ranked pairs enter the tournament in the round of eight.
Summary
This is basically what the tournament tree at the WPT looks like. So which rounds players enter depends on ranking and how many players are entered. There are usually 96 men's teams in Open classes, and 56 women's teams entered. In Masters tournaments, there are usually 100 men's teams entered, and 60 women's teams entered. In the Master's finals - which are played in December each year - only the top eight pairs on the men's and women's sides play.
So if you win all your matches and play from the first round, you could have as many as eleven matches in seven days.
Tournament categories
There are four different categories of tournaments on the World Padel Tour. They all have a different status - here ordered from highest to lowest status:
The Masters final
In the Masters final, only the top eight ranked pairs on the men's and women's side will play. It is usually played as the last tournament of the year. Last year, Fernando Belasteguin and Agustin Tapia won the men's event, while Gemma Triay and Lucia Sainz won the women's category. Although the ranking points the winners receive (1300) are not the most, it is the most prestigious tournament.
Masters
60 women's pairs and 100 men's pairs can register. These are the most prestigious tournaments (four including the Masters Final) on the tour, alongside the Masters Final. If you win a Masters's, you will receive 1700 points.
Opens
The most common tournament format at the WPT. Usually, 96 men's pairs entered, and 56 women's pairs entered. If you win an Open, you get 1000 points.
Challenger
The lowest-ranked tournament at the WPT is the easiest to get into and perfect if you want to earn points to get into the bigger tournaments. If you win a challenger, you get 120 points.
Points in World Padel Tour
The Masters final
• Winner: 1300 points
• Second place: 780 points
• Loss semi-final: 470 points
• Loss in the quarter-finals: 235 points
Masters
• Winner: 1700 points
• Second place: 1020 points
• Loss semi-final: 610 points
• Loss quarter-final: 310 points
• Loss round of 16: 150 points
• Loss round of 32: 70 points
Opens
• Winner: 1000 points
• Second place: 600 points
• Loss semi-final: 360 points
• Loss in quarter-final: 180 points
• Loss round of 16: 90 points
• Loss round of 32: 40 points
Challenger
• Winner: 120 points
• Second place: 75 points
• Semi-final loss: 50 points
• Loss in the quarter-finals: 35 points
• Loss round of 16: 25 points
• Loss round of 32: 12 points
Ranking
Your ranking on the World Padel Tour is based on the points you score in any of the above tournament categories.
The ranking is updated weekly, and if a player has been playing with their partner for over a year, they will have the same ranking points. The ranking points you have are based on the last year's competitions, which means that when you get your new points after a competition, the points you took exactly one year ago will also disappear.
To give young players further down the rankings a better chance of climbing, the WPT also has a specific bonus system. If you, as an unseeded player, defeat a seeded player in a tournament, you will receive bonus points in addition to the points you receive for reaching a certain round.
An unseeded pair that beats a seeded pair in the main round gets 40 points in the Masters, 25 in the Opens, and seven in a challenger.
If you also manage to make it all the way from the Previa to the main tournament, you will also get bonus points.
Schedule
- Madrid Open - April 5 -11
- Alicante Open - April 19 - 25
- Vigo Open - May 3 - 9
- Santander Open - May 24 - 30
- Marbella Master - June 7 - 13
- Albacete Challenger - June 14 - 20
- Valladolid Master - June 21 - 27
- Valencia Open - July 5 - 11
- Puerto de Santa María Challenger - July 12 - 18
- Las Rozas Open - July 19 - 25
- Málaga Open - August 2 - 8
- La Nucía Challenger - August 9 - 15
- Acapulco Exhibition - August 11 - 14
- Calanda Challenger - August 23 - 29
- Cascais Master - August 30 - September 5
- Sardegna Open - September 6 - 12
- Barcelona Master - September 13 - 19
- Lugo Open - September 20 - 26
- Segovia Challenger - September 27 -October 3
- Menorca Open - October 4 - 10
- Alfafar Challenger - October 11 - 17
- Córdoba Open - October 18 - 24
- Swedish Open - November 8 - 14
- Buenos Aires Master - November 22 - 28
- México Open - November 29 - December 5
- Madrid Master Final - December 16 - 19
History
The World Padel Tour, the international organ for professional padel, was founded in 2012. After receiving the green light from the International Padel Federation, FIP, they could start up in 2013.
Before the WPT was founded, the professional tour was called the Padel Pro Tour (PPT). A tour was active between 2005 and 2012 before the WPT took over.
Initially, the WPT was only played in Spain, but for a few years now, the tour has expanded outside the country, for example, to Sweden and Båstad.
This year the WPT will be played in Spain, Mexico, Sweden, Argentina, Italy, and Portugal.
