Padel's World Cup Is Live in Doha — and You Can Watch It Free on Previously

DOHA, Qatar — If you have never watched padel, this is the week to start, and you do not need a subscription to do it. The fastest-growing racket sport on the planet — part tennis, part squash, played in doubles on a small court wrapped in glass walls that are very much in play — is holding its world championship this week in Doha. The group stage started Monday. The finals are Saturday. And every bit of it is streaming live, free, on a channel we carry right here.

The event is the FIP World Cup, run by the International Padel Federation. Longtime fans know it as the World Padel Championship, a tournament that goes back to 1992 and has been rebranded for a sport that is not really a niche anymore: tens of millions of people now play padel worldwide, courts are multiplying across the United States, and this edition is the richest the championship has ever been, with a record €1.2 million prize fund split equally between the men's and women's competitions. The two winning teams on Saturday will also take home a new tradition: a world champions patch, worn on the shirt, the way football's world champions wear theirs.

Two countries own this trophy

Here is the strangest fact in padel, and the one that frames the whole week: in more than three decades of this championship, only two nations have ever won it. Argentina and Spain. That is the entire list. Argentina's men arrive in Doha as the defending champions, having won the last two editions. Spain's women hold the women's crown. Everybody else — Portugal, Italy, Brazil, France, the hosts — is trying to break a duopoly that has never been broken.

The format gives them six days to try. Sixteen men's teams and sixteen women's teams are split into groups of four. Each tie is a best-of-three matches, group play runs Monday through Wednesday, and the top two in every group move on. Quarterfinals Thursday, semifinals Friday, and on Saturday the third-place matches in the morning give way to the two finals that crown the world champions.

For one week, the best pairs in the world split up

The twist that makes this tournament unlike anything on the pro tour: padel's elite pairs are multinational, and this week the partnerships dissolve. Arturo Coello of Spain and Agustín Tapia of Argentina are the world No. 1 pair, nearly unbeatable together all season. In Doha they are on opposite sides of the net, playing for their countries. Same story for the world No. 2 pair — Fede Chingotto goes home to Argentina, and the man he has spent two seasons covering the court with goes home to Spain. Friends and teammates for an entire year, opponents for one week, as the federation itself puts it. There is no other event in the sport that does this.

Spain's men, though, took a real hit before a ball was struck. Alejandro Galán — the world No. 2, Spain's best backhand player and half of that No. 2 pair — was ruled out on medical grounds days before the tournament, his right hand not recovered in time. The Spanish Padel Federation confirmed the withdrawal last Friday, as Cadena SER and Eurosport reported, and Javi Leal was called up in his place. Spain is still deep enough to win the thing. It is just a noticeably harder thing to win now.

Team USA is in it, and the hosts have a group to survive

There is an American angle, too. The group draw reported by Qatar News Agency put the USA men's team in Group D with Italy, Brazil and Mexico — no soft landing, but a genuine shot at the second qualifying spot and the quarterfinals. The hosts, Qatar, headline Group C on the men's side against Portugal, Chile and Germany, in front of a home crowd at the Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex, the same venue that hosts the sport's Qatar Major every year. Doha is not borrowing this event. With the 2028 edition already confirmed for the same courts, Qatar is building itself into padel's second home.

Watch the whole week with us

Red Bull TV is carrying the FIP World Cup live — Centre Court coverage was live Monday morning — and Red Bull TV is one of the channels on Previously's Live TV page, where it streams free. No account, no paywall, no hunting for a link at match time. Open the Live TV page, tap Red Bull TV, and the world championship is on — group stage through the quarterfinals and semifinals, all the way to Saturday's finals.

We will be honest about why we are pointing at this one: a world championship, in a sport growing this fast, streaming live and free on our own site is exactly the kind of thing Previously exists to put in front of you. If you have been padel-curious — and the line of new courts opening from Miami to Los Angeles says a lot of people are — there is no cheaper seat in sports this week than this one. It costs nothing, and it is already on.