Why lawyer Jessica Agra decided to focus more on padel

Lawyer Jessica Agra has been an athlete for most of her life.

In 2006 at the age of 14, she was already a junior tennis champion in ITF Doubles. Almost two decades later at 32, she is now ranked no. 2 in the Asia Pacific Padel Tour.

Agra described padel as a combination of tennis and squash, with the game being played like tennis, but there are walls just like how squash is played. 

"The recent win, I joined the Asia Pacific Padel Tour in Phuket just two weeks ago. I won that tournament with my partner from Indonesia and because of that win, my ranking went from no. 6 to no. 2," Agra told GMA News Online.

The feat was quite a fast rise as she started turning her focus on padel just this year.

Agra, an entertainment and sports lawyer, was working as an in-house counsel for a news organization and production company until she decided to take her chance in the sport.

"This year, when I decided to focus more on padel, I stopped working full-time as an in-house counsel and decided to do my own thing, do my private practice and hopefully handle talents and athletes and still practice, but without the every day schedule of going to the office because I need my schedule to be more flexible and train also for padel," said Agra.

For her, focusing on padel was a decision to continue her childhood dream.

"I remember saying when I was a kid that my dream was to be a professional tennis player or a lawyer. After passing the bar and working as a lawyer, and I wasn't able to really play as a professional tennis player after juniors, with the opportunity padel presents, I think I couldn't pass on that opportunity," she said.

"I would not let go of practicing as a lawyer for sure. It's just that now, instead of being just a lawyer, I'd have to balance both being a lawyer and being an athlete. It's nice because I get to do two things I love doing. It's really about managing priorities and hopefully, being able to do both as I go."

However, along with continuing her childhood dream, she also wants padel to gain ground in the country.

"Hopefully, I don't know if it's possible, but hopefully, as well-known as tennis," Agra said when asked about her dreams for padel in the Philippines.

"I know that it could be a long-shot because tennis has been around for so long but at least for Filipinos to be aware of what padel is... Hopefully at least Filipinos would know what the sport is and be interested in trying it out as well."

—JKC, GMA Integrated News