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  • 2 years ago
Former national tennis player Shane Stone is part of the SXM Padel Club inaugural Caribbean versus USA tournament in Philipsburg, St. Maarten.

An exhibition takes place on Friday, with the actual tournament set for this Saturday.

Stone also plans to get persons in T&T involved in padel in time to come.
Transcript
00:00Former Trinidad and Tobago tennis player Shane Stone has been heavily involved in the sport
00:05of paddle tennis, better known as paddle. Stone is a medical doctor based in both his
00:10land of birth, TNT, and other home, the USA. He has played an instrumental role in organizing
00:15a Caribbean versus USA paddle tournament, which takes place in St. Martin.
00:19Yeah, so I've enjoyed getting to be part of the team that organized the USA versus Caribbean
00:24paddle challenge. We've never really had a Caribbean team in paddle before, and so
00:29for me being able to be the captain of the team this year, and it's an all-round one,
00:33has made this a really exciting event for me. We have the main match, it's going to be on
00:38Saturday, July 6th at the St. Martin Paddle Club, and we're going to have a pro-am and an
00:44exhibition the day before, and this really is going to start gaining more exposure to the sport
00:48of paddle, not just in the island of St. Martin, but throughout the Caribbean.
00:51Stone has had the experience of playing paddle with the US national team, which gave him a head
00:56start in coming up with this initiative. According to him, this is a step in the right direction for
01:01the Caribbean. So, you know, obviously getting a new sport to the exposure that you want is very,
01:07very difficult, especially when it's made up of a lot of different islands and you're trying to
01:12get it built in different places. You know, I think just getting more players who are playing
01:17other sports like tennis and squash and badminton, etc., to become part of just a bigger racket
01:22sport community is big. You know, I know a lot of tennis players resist a lot of new racket
01:27sports around the market, but truthfully, whether we like it or not, all of these sports are here
01:31to stay. You know, during COVID, there were more paddle players in Spain than tennis players,
01:36which kind of gives a testament to the quick growth of the sport. Several Caribbean islands
01:41have paddle courts, excluding Trinidad and Tobago. It means whenever Stone returns home,
01:46he practices on a regular tennis court. Being from the Twin Island country,
01:50Stone is hoping to change that in time to come. Yeah, so a lot of islands in the Caribbean have
01:54now put down some paddle courts. You know, obviously, St. Martin has some,
01:57Bahamas has some fantastic facilities, Curacao, Martinique, Barbados, Santo Domingo in the
02:04Dominican Republic all have paddle courts. We don't have any in Trinidad as yet. My hope is
02:08that within the next couple of years, as we start developing a Caribbean paddle championships,
02:13we're kind of pushed into a space where whether it's something that is publicly funded or
02:17privately funded, that this just gives racket sport enthusiasts just another sport that they
02:22can become part of. Stone is encouraging people to keep an open mind to paddle,
02:26even if they are involved in other racket sports. Vinod Narwani, TV6 Sport.
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