From Wall Street to World Padel
In the latest episode of The Joy of Padel Podcast, host Minter Dial sits down with Nico Agritelley, America’s #1 ranked Padel player. The episode dives deep into Nico’s journey from a burnt-out tennis player to a professional Padel athlete, exploring the challenges of growing the sport in the United States and what it takes to compete at the highest level.
Remember when you were so confident in your sports ability that losing to teenagers seemed impossible? That’s exactly what happened to Agritelley. After playing what he thought was Padel for two years, he got crushed by a pair of 15-year-olds in a club tournament. This humbling experience taught him a crucial lesson: he wasn’t really playing Padel – he was just playing tennis on a Padel court.
“For the first two years of me playing Padel, I wasn’t actually playing Padel. I was playing tennis on the Padel court,” Agritelley admits with a laugh. He had never taken a single Padel lesson, avoiding the walls and trying to smash everything over them instead of using them strategically. The defeat by teenagers became his wake-up call, pushing him to learn the real sport.
In 2022, Agritelley made a decision that would raise eyebrows in any Dallas country club: he quit his stable finance job to pursue Padel full-time. The catalyst? A trip to Qatar for the World Championships where he had to take unpaid leave. When his boss later said “no more unpaid time off,” Agritelley chose Padel over his finance career – a decision he calls “the best I’ve ever made in my entire life.”
Today, Agritelley travels 32 weekends a year playing tournaments with his partner Luis Estrada. Their success has brought sponsorships and prize money, helping them stay afloat while chasing their dreams. But being America’s best comes with a unique challenge: finding worthy opponents. “There’s really only one other couple, one other team here in the U.S. that’s giving us a true challenge,” Agritelley reveals.
This competition gap led them to spend a month training in Spain, where they played against the top 50 ranked players daily. The difference in level was stark. “If I sit the ball up three or four inches too high at that level, points over,” Agritelley explains. “Here in the U.S., we get away with a couple of mistakes here and there.”
Known as the “American Eagle” on the court, Agritelley has developed a unique playing style that combines his tennis background with modern Padel techniques. He emphasizes that finding the right partner isn’t just about skill – it’s about chemistry. Within five minutes of playing with someone new, he can tell if they’ll click on the court. His partnership with Estrada clicked from day one, with both players instinctively knowing each other’s moves.
The podcast reveals an interesting tension in American Padel: sponsors want players like Agritelley to stay home and grow the sport domestically, but to improve, they need to train in countries where Padel is more developed. This catch-22 highlights the challenges facing American players trying to break into the world’s top rankings.
For Agritelley, Padel offers something his tennis career never could: continuous improvement. “With tennis, I peaked in college,” he reflects. “Whereas with this sport, I look back at last year and I’m loads better this year than I was last year.” This constant growth and global travel opportunities to places like Qatar, Italy, and South America, have given him a second sporting life he never expected.
The episode concludes with Agritelley’s candid assessment of what it would take for an American to reach the world’s top 20 in Padel. His answer might surprise listeners and reveal just how far the U.S. still has to go in developing elite Padel talent.
Whether you’re a tennis player curious about transitioning to Padel, an aspiring professional, or simply someone interested in the growth of this rapidly expanding sport in America, this episode offers valuable insights into the challenges and rewards of pursuing Padel at the highest level.
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