MIAMI — At least once a week, María Mercedes Ortega, a 32-year-old real estate agent and spa owner, puts on a stylish ensemble and meets up with her girlfriends. Not to go bar hopping or clubbing, diversions she says she left behind in her 20s, but to play padel, Miami’s trendiest sport.

Yes, it’s a satisfying workout — “It’s great for the legs,” she said. But just as important, padel is “a very high-level social activity,” as Ortega put it.

Many of the city’s well-heeled and wellness inclined have developed a fervor for padel, the racket sport that is easier than tennis, harder than pickleball and more exclusive than both. Indoor and outdoor padel courts, with their signature glass walls, are proliferating in warehouses, parks, former parking lots. There are courts at the Ritz-Carlton i

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