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Less than three years after taking up padel as a sport, Sasha Martinengo is now a qualified coach.
Broadcaster Sasha Martinengo has taken up coaching padel. Picture: f1sasha/Instagram
One rarely gets to carve out a new career after years of establishing themselves in another for more than two decades.
But that’s what seasoned broadcaster Sasha Martinengo is doing. After a stellar radio career, Martinengo is making a name for himself as a padel coach – this after only picking up the sport around 2022.
“When I first saw it I thought ‘I wish I was 30 years younger’. But I sat there and I saw people smiling and having fun and I thought ‘you know what, go and help people, go and coach people’,” Martinengo told The Citizen.
The former 5FM radio personality spoke to this publication at the Inaugural Sunbet Padel Invitational launch in Sandton at the end of January.
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Martinengo the coach
Eight months after he started playing padel, Martinengo noticed a gap in the sport: a lack of specialised coaches. Many of the coaches were tennis coaches or former tennis coaches.
“I got in touch with the Spanish, because that’s where there’s a captive audience of padel,” shared Martinengo.
He enrolled with a Spanish company where he did an online coaching course.
The broadcaster flew to Europe for physical training after his two-month online course.
“I came back as an internationally certified padel coach. From there at least I can go on to the court and coach people with the conviction that they’ getting the best that I can offer and the best that I’ve learnt from the best in the world.”
He has been coaching for just over two years. For the physical training, he spent three days in Spain.
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Padel’s growth
The broadcaster played tennis as a kid but hadn’t picked up a racquet in 30-odd years before getting into padel in 2022.
Padel has existed for about five decades but has seen a rapid rise in popularity in the past 10 to 15 years, with former sports personalities taking it up after ending their professional careers.
From former French footballer Zinédine Zidane and retired Irish centre Brian O’Driscoll to multiple Grand Slam champion Serena Williams, it attracts people who were at the pinnacle of their sports.
“I think a lot of other sportsmen and women, soccer players, find that accessibility… they don’t have to be as good as they are in football to go and enjoy padel.
“You could’ve played no racquet sports and within an hour on the court, you can hit the ball back, you’re smiling with each other, you’re laughing because the ball is always in play and bounces off the wall, you’re running in all strange directions. It’s just so much fun.”
The sport’s popularity has seen it compared to golf in how some of the most influential people are taking it up, but Martinengo says padel’s rise shouldn’t diminish other sports.
“I think golf has got its standing, I think all the big deals are still made over golf courses, not yet on the padel court. But I think other sports maybe have to start being a little more innovative in order to maintain their popularity, but then also to combine with padel. There’s nothing wrong with padel in the morning and golf in the afternoon, or vice-versa.”
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Sunbet Padel Invitational
Martinengo will compete this weekend’s Sunbet Padel Invitational at Pretoria’s Africa Padel in Brooklyn.
Media personality Kriya Gangiah is organising the tournament. Other celebrities expected to participate include Mark Fish and Vernon Philander, with Roxy Burger organising it.
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