He is Tomás Roldán, the first professional paddle player from Colombia

Tomás Roldán, Colombian padel player.

Tomás Roldán, Colombian paddle player.

The man from Antioquia seeks to unite with another padelista from the country and put Colombia on the world radar.

Tomás Roldán is a pioneer at 25 years old. The athlete from Antioquia, with a past as a tennis player, last week became the first Colombian to receive the professional paddle player license granted by the International Padel Federation (FIP). Now, with the doors that are open for him to play in official tournaments around the world, his idea is to unite with another Colombian in this sport, which is played in pairs, and for the country to earn its own place in the discipline.

Roldán, the first paddle player with a professional license from the FIP

“About two years ago I started playing paddle tennis at the invitation of a friend in Medellín, it started to go very well and I started working. It was not easy to get the license from the International Federation because Colombia still does not have its federationno licenses, so I had to go through several processes but I did it and I can now play professional tournaments all over the planet”, says Roldán from Alicante, Spain, where he has been training for more than two months at the Equelite Academy, a renowned training center of the Spanish tennis player Juan Carlos Ferrero and who in his paddle wing is led by the Argentine ‘Sanyo’ Gutiérrez, who became the best in his discipline in 2018.

“Here in Spain I have discovered that I am not that far away to compete, but I have to continue working. I have received several proposals to form a team, but the idea is to have another Colombian to help him obtain his license and that we can both be the representatives of the country in the discipline”, Roldán tells this newspaper.

Regarding the goal of fighting for titles, the padel player says that he projects that the moment would arrive in approximately a year. Meanwhile, the idea is that his work will boost the popularity of the sport in Colombia. “Paddle tennis is growing a lot in the country and we are in talks with Alejandro Falla (extenist) and others so that the National Padel Federation can be created because that way we players would have many more opportunities. That is in the works and we hope it will come true very soon,” he announces.