Opel South Africa held its first ever Grandlands Slam – a one-day Padel challenge that led to champions being crowned in Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg after a fierce four-hour challenge.
The sport, which originated in Mexico, has taken South Africa by storm since it was first introduced here three years ago. Today there are hundreds of courts across South Africa’s major centres and Opel has been sponsoring courts in Randpark (Johannesburg), Gateway (Durban) and Durbanville (Cape Town) since the beginning of the year.
Opel thought the initiative an ideal fit for its Opel Grandland range, its customer base and product suitability a natural synergy with the growing sport of Padel.
“Padel is a fantastic sport that has captured people’s imagination because of the innovation behind it, the ease with which people can access and enjoy it and the downright enjoyment of getting out, spending time with friends, competing and getting fit,” says Opel SA Brand Head, Jateen Daya. “We like to think the Opel Grandland is equally innovative, enabling an active lifestyle, whether for fitness or social sake.”
The action sport has changed the way people exercise and socialise, a similar evolution to Opel’s in motoring. The German brand was conceived in 1862 to manufacture sewing machines before growing into making Penny Farthing bicycles, then cars, and its ground-breaking work in the EV field.
“There’s nothing typical about Padel, but then again there’s nothing typical about the Opel Grandland with its bold new design, iconic Vizor, vibrant interior with Pure Panel display, state-of-the-art responsive engine, and IntelliLuxLED® Pixel Lights. It’s a perfect synergy of agility and performance from the Padel court to the open road.”
Elegantly sporty with intuitive controls and innovative technologies, the Opel Grandland is available in three models, each featuring a high level of specification typically found in higher segments. The Edition Base, GS Line and top-of-the-range Ultimate are all powered by Opel’s 121kW 1.6T engine with automatic transmission. The stylish SUV would be the ultimate Padel enabler.
The players certainly thought so, close to 100 of them going head-to-head on 20 July. Each city hosted players divided into doubles teams allocated into four groups. Each match was played on the Fast 6 format of six matches and each group played a minimum of four games. The top two teams in each group went through to the quarter finals, with the winners proceeding to the semis and then the finals.
The successful tournament was a fantastic opportunity to get out and have fun in Opel style, but also introduce a brand-new cohort of fans to the rest of the Opel range from the Corsa to the Mokka and the Zafira Life – as well as the belle of the ball, the Grandland.
“This was a massive success for everyone involved, from the players to the Opel staff on the day, South Africa can look forward to more Padel events like this,” says Daya.
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Sport Trivia: Apart from a team event bronze medal in 1992, Ghana won three other individual Olympic medals in the 20th century. These were all in the same event. Which event was this? Answer: Boxing. Ghanaian boxers won silver in Rome in 1960, bronze in Tokyo in 1964, and Munich in 1972.