Paiola was born in Campinas, and his father died when he was one year old.[3] He started out playing tennis, but took up badminton at age 13 after a shoulder injury took him out for year. While still a teenager, his mother sent him to train in Portugal with Marco Vasconcelos, a fifteen-time Portuguese national champion, and his training also took him to Spain, Denmark and Malaysia.[4] His first international tournament was the 2007 Pan Am Junior Badminton Championships, where he competed in the under-19 boys' singles and mixed doubles events.
Professional career
Paiola made his professional international debut at the 2008 South Africa International in Cape Town, where he won a gold medal in the men's singles category.[5]
He also competed at the 2014 BWF World Championships in Kuala Lumpur. In the men's singles tournament, he lost his first match against Austrian David Obernosterer (21-17, 11-21, 17-21).[8] He also participated in mixed doubles, where he and Paula Pereira lost in the first round to the Austrian pairing of Roman Zirnwald and Elisabeth Baldauf (15-21, 17-21). The following August at the 2015 event, though, he avenged his loss to Obernosterer by beating him by the scores of 21-14, 11-21, 24-22. He subsequently lost his second-round match with Lin Dan (widely considered one of the greatest badminton players ever) with scores of 14-21, 14-21.[3]