The opening ceremony of the FIP World Cup 2026. Carraro: “Players, the world is watching you. Enjoy yourselves, play fair and put on a show”

The music, the enthusiasm of the players, the colours of the national team kits blending into a constantly moving rainbow. And, above all, the two World Cups – men’s and women’s – at the centre of a stage, where a huge screen shows images that are already part of history. Highlights, embraces and celebrations from the last World Cup – back in 2024 – play on the screen, while the greatest champions on the planet mingle with young debutants struggling to contain their excitement.

 

The FIP World Cup is also about this: the joy of coming together wearing a kit that represents your country, before stepping onto the court to compete with fairness and sportsmanship. At the opening ceremony in Doha, following the welcome address and the wish for a ‘great competition’ from tournament director and secretary general of QTF and the Qatar Padel Federation, Tarek Zainal, it was the turn of Luigi Carraro, president of the International Padel Federation, to address the audience. “We are finally here for the biggest and most important competition in padel, the FIP World Cup,” the FIP president began. “Here in Doha, an outstanding venue which, with the expertise of the Qatar Tennis Federation and Qatar Padel Federation, has already demonstrated its ability to organise world-class events to perfection, we come together with teams representing all five continents – further proof of just how global our sport has become.”

 

After recalling how this world was first imagined and then built, thanks in particular to the enthusiasm “of Qatar, a country that has become a home for padel, and especially to that of Nasser Al-Khelaifi”, Carraro highlighted that “the tournament’s €1.2 million prize money is the highest ever offered at a padel competition, shared equally between the men’s and women’s events. Here we have 32 teams representing 20 countries, with hundreds of players,” Carraro added, before calling on everyone to embrace healthy sporting competition and the purest values of sport: “I ask you to enjoy yourselves, compete according to the highest principles of fair play and put on a show together, as one team. Players, the world is watching you, and we are all asking you to amaze it once again.” Carraro concluded his speech before the teams paraded onto the stage and the World Cup was officially opened: “I hereby declare the FIP World Cup 2026 open!”.