Racquet sports in Singapore usually start with a price tag and a WhatsApp group chat about who’s covering the court fee. Padel at the Gardens skips both. Two custom-built courts have gone up on the West Lawn at Gardens by the Bay, the booking fee is S$0, and they stay there until 11 October 2026.
UBS presents the pop-up with Gardens by the Bay as programme partner, and it’s billed as the first padel event of its kind in Singapore. It’s also the newest stop on UBS’s regional Padel Series, which has already dropped courts beside Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour and turned the Sydney Opera House into a sporting arena. Singapore got the Supertrees, which is a fair trade.
What Padel Actually Is
Padel is doubles-only, played on an enclosed glass court that’s smaller than a tennis court. The walls keep the ball alive, so rallies run long and nobody spends the afternoon jogging after their own mishits. It borrows the scoring from tennis and the wall-play from squash, and the serve is underarm, which removes the single most humiliating part of picking up a racquet sport as an adult.
That combination explains the numbers. The International Padel Federation counts more than 38 million players across over 170 countries, with participation expected to pass 105 million by 2030. Locally, CNA reported in December 2025 that Singapore had grown from one padel operator in 2021 to 16, so the appetite here was already there before anyone built a court in a national garden.
Free to Book, S$15 to Swing
Here’s the part worth reading twice. The court booking itself costs nothing. Each session runs two hours, the courts are open 8am to 10pm daily, and the only money that changes hands is for gear: S$15 per racquet and S$12 per tube of three balls, both non-refundable. Bring three friends and split the rental, and an evening under the Supertrees works out cheaper than a cinema ticket.
Bookings go through the Playtomic app (search for UBS Centre Court at Gardens by the Bay) or the Gardens by the Bay padel page, on a first-come, first-served basis. They opened at 8am on 19 September and every slot was booked out on the first day. Organisers say the courts are currently fully booked, with cancellations the only route in, so the practical move is checking the app at odd hours rather than refreshing it at lunchtime with everyone else.
Who Showed Up to Open It
The official opening on 18 September put Senior Parliamentary Secretary for the Ministry of Education and Ministry of National Development Syed Harun Alhabsyi on court for a friendly game with community participants, alongside Singapore’s National Padel players and Gardens by the Bay Chief Operations Officer Ong Kian Ann.
The more interesting names are the ones holding racquets. Lim Han Ren, born 1992, played competitive tennis for over 20 years before finding padel two years ago, won the Men’s Gold Division at the Padel Co Classic and represented Singapore at the 2025 Asia Pacific Padel Cup. Nate Wong, born 2011, came in through tennis and javelin, and that cross-sport background shows in how fast he’s climbed. Then there’s Celine Khoo, born 1977, a mother of three, a former lawyer turned Pilates instructor, with no racquet sports background at all before she picked up padel a year ago.
Khoo is the one to pay attention to if you’ve been telling yourself you’re not sporty enough for this. A year is not a long apprenticeship, and the sport’s whole design argument is that the learning curve is short and the walls are forgiving.
Courts in a Garden, Not a Club
Ong Kian Ann framed the partnership around what Gardens by the Bay calls itself. “As the People’s Garden, we have a lively, year-round calendar of community events for people to gather and bond amidst nature,” he said, adding that the collaboration opens the sport to a wider audience against the backdrop of the Supertrees.
Conrad Huber, Managing Director at UBS Global Wealth Management, put it in terms of the bank’s Craft of Sport initiative. “By creating this shared public space, we hope to create meaningful opportunities for people to connect through shared passions,” he said.
Strip the corporate framing and the useful bit remains: for three weeks, padel lives in a public garden. That’s a different set of people getting a first try, which is the whole point of putting it here rather than in a sports complex.
Practical Notes Before You Go
The courts are sheltered, which matters in late September. Whoever makes the booking needs to be present and show valid identification or the booking confirmation on arrival, so you can’t hand your slot to a friend who’s free that evening. The public grandstands beside the courts are not open for general use, so this is a play-in activation rather than a spectator one.
The address is 18 Marina Gardens Drive, and the 10pm closing means an after-work session is genuinely doable. If you’re already planning an October in the city centre, note the courts run right through the Singapore Grand Prix weekend from 9 to 11 October, when Marina Bay is at its most chaotic.
🗓️ Dates: Saturday, 19 September to Sunday, 11 October 2026
⏰ Time: 8am to 10pm daily, in two-hour sessions
📍 Location: UBS Centre Court at Gardens by the Bay, West Lawn, 18 Marina Gardens Drive, Singapore 018953
💰 Court booking: Free
🎾 Equipment rental: S$15 per racquet, S$12 per tube of three balls, both non-refundable
📱 Booking: Playtomic app (search UBS Centre Court at Gardens by the Bay) or the Gardens by the Bay padel page
🪪 Note: The booking user must be present with valid identification or booking confirmation
Three weeks is a short window, and the slots were gone on the first day, so treat cancellations as your best shot and check the padel booking page at unsociable hours rather than during your lunch break. If nothing opens up before 11 October, the UBS Padel Series has form for turning up at the region’s landmarks, so keep an eye out for where it lands next!
Visuals courtesy of UBS and Gardens by the Bay.
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