Emmie Ekdahl started playing paddle when the first courses were built in Östergötland five years ago.
She had played tennis before, but a coach said that if she bet, she would join the paddle national team:
- And then I thought "shit va fun" and since then it has been hard, she says.
The ranking is locked
She still lives in Linköping, but so far she has to go south to get really good training.
She is in Gothenburg three weeks a month and as often as she can she goes to Spain to get sparring.
She recently beat Sverigeettan when the Swedish paddle tour started, but due to the corona pandemic, the competitions are only open to a small number of players and therefore do not give ranking points, so only later this spring does she expect to be able to climb the ranking table.
Spanish shoes totally dominate
In the world ranking, Emmie Ekdahl is in 260th place, but there is total Spanish dominance.
Spain has more top names in paddle sports than China has in table tennis.
Of the ladies' top 100, 74 are Spanish shoes and all the top ten are placed.
Emmie Ekdahal says that Swedes have a lot to learn:
- We often have a tennis background and hit harder than the Spaniards, and thus we also miss a lot too, they almost never miss.
Hear her tell more about her venture in the feature above.