BY any standards The Padel Paper’s first year has been a tumultuous one for the game we all love.
The 2022 calendar has been punctuated by moments of unforgettable drama like GB men’s last-gasp qualification for the 2022 World Championships and the successful conclusion of the first ever FIP Rise London Open tournament culminating in the triumph of Britain’s golden girl Tia Norton.
At domestic level, the LTA National Club League Championships delivered dramatic victories for the National Tennis Centre in the men’s tournament and Harbour Club Chelsea in the ladies competition, and the burgeoning growth of the HOP Tour at both professional and club player level is another notable highlight.
Veteran padel also continues to grow apace, with both the GB men’s and ladies set-ups now increasingly well-structured and looking forward to a New Year packed full of meaningful competition.
At the other end of the scale, the progress of Theo Garton, Ethan Bardo, Catherine Rose, and Lila Simpson continues to highlight the fact that a conveyor belt of young talent is being produced a year before the LTA’s official launch of padel.
Add to that the increasing venue infrastructure, which saw the UK’s very own 11-court super facility We Are Padel in Derby showcasing itself as the perfect facility for big-game competition, when the European qualifiers for the World Championships provided an unforgettable weekend of action in October.
Game4Padel’s timely pop-up padel extravaganza at the Westfield Retail outlet, with the involvement of ambassadors Sir Andy and Jamie Murray, exposed padel to an audience who had never been aware of it before, and for one weekend, sent the sport’s profile into a completely new stratosphere.
It is the people behind these deeds, denouements, and developments who The Padel Paper is keen to laud in our first-ever end-of-year recognition of the sport’s most influential individuals on the UK scene.
So, with our apologies to any who failed to make the cut, here are our most influential people in British padel from 2022.
Tom Murray, LTA
The LTA’s Head of Padel is the person plotting padel’s course into a brave new world yet as far back as 2013, when he co-founded British Padel, Murray was one of the lynchpins behind the sport’s foundations on these shores.
Murray himself recently confirmed the importance of his role as the architect of British padel when he said: “As the LTA heads into 2023 we’ve reached a point where the foundations are firmly in place and we’re ready to take the sport to the next level.
“By that I mean, we’ve been piloting coaching courses in 2022 which will be rolled out next year and having surpassed the 200 court mark – we find ourselves in an exciting phase of our development plan. Building the infrastructure was step one on the LTA’s and a crucial one.”
Tia Norton
It is hard to believe that the GB No.1 female is still just 19 yet it was on Tia’s young shoulders that our women’s bid to make the World Championships was placed in October and nobody could have done more to try and get the girls onto the plane to Dubai.
In May, Tia became the very first recipient of the LTA Padel Award at an LTA awards gala dinner, yet Norton enjoyed her seminal moment when partnered by Carla Fito Fernandez she claimed the first ever FIP Rise London Padel Open in August.
Reflecting on her supreme moment of 2022 Tia told us: “It took quite a while to sink in but I was absolutely ecstatic with the victory at the National Tennis Centre and to be honest I had to switch off my phone and left Instagram alone for a couple of days just to take time to let things settle and enjoy the win with my family.
“Looking back winning the London Open was just a super-satisfying moment and I am really proud of what Carla and I have achieved.”
John Leach, Home of Padel
The former GB international and men’s captain was the man who guided our guys to Dubai via a palpitation-inducing victory over Germany on a never-to-be-forgotten Sunday afternoon in Derby.
Yet Leach has also found time to encourage rising stars of our game like Theo Garton and Ethan Bardo as he looks to bring our next generation of stars through while at the other end of the spectrum he was earlier this year appointed as GB Men’s Veterans Head Coach while he is also a co-founder of the HOP Padel Tour.
Reflecting on all of that Leach said: “Only 16 teams made it to Dubai 2022 and we had 80 countries trying to qualify for the finals, so it was a real achievement just to be here. Although it did not go as we would have liked we developed great team spirit as a group and really fought our way through qualifying and we gave it everything to make Britain proud.”
Nigel Garton, Tennis World Middlesborough
The Head Coach at Tennis World Middlesbrough, Nigel is the man behind the plans which turned TS4 3SA – the fourth most deprived area in the UK – into a hothouse of padel growth.
Now in just three years, padel income has grown from £24,000 to £55,000 on a completely pay-per-play model, and Tennis World Middlesborough has 200 padel players who take to the court every week.
A key member of the GB team that finished fourth at the inaugural 1992 World Padel Championships, the talented Teessider is now one of the most influential coaches in the UK and is Head Coach for the GB Women’s Veterans team. In addition, he is also guiding his talented son Theo, one of our ‘Padel Stars of the Future’ towards international honours.
For Nigel, three is the magic number in his padel missionary work: “Really padel took off straight away. What we have found is if someone plays padel once they really like the game, if they play twice they think it’s a fantastic game and if they play three times they are hooked. So three is the magic number and the target is to get them on court for that third time.”
This grassroots development is key to any sport and that is why we felt Nigel could not be omitted from this list.
Abi Tordoff, Set Padel
On the playing front it has been a meteoric rise for the former Wimbledon tennis player who went from novice to full international and played a starring role with the GB women’s team in their gutsy bid to qualify for the World Championships.
Tordoff was also a key player in the Harbour Club Chelsea side who claimed the LTA National League Club title at the NTC.
Despite all that Tordoff found the time to co-found Set Padel which encourages women and juniors to take up the sport by running coaching clinics to introduce them to the game at padel venues around the country.
Something that clearly enthuses Abi: “It’s exciting to know that there is a real desire out there from like-minded women who want to play and learn. From my own experience I felt this was the case and this has been reinforced since founding SET.
“We want to create an environment that is fun and friendly where women can pick up a bat and have fun.”
Sandy Farquharson, The Padel School
The GB international played a key part in helping John Leach’s team make it to Dubai 2022 where his experience made him a hugely positive influence on younger players like Nikhil Mohindra, with whom he has formed an impressive partnership.
Yet is is because of his work with The Padel School that Sandy is the most-recognised UK padel player internationally. He founded Padel School back in 2019 to provide help for any players wanting to improve their game, and has driven an internationally-recognised programme that has provided Coach Education Workshops, Open Days, Exhibitions, while with a following of 75k on Youtube and 129k on Instagram, Sandy is the social media king-pin of British Padel.
Farquharson has no doubt about the key skills in becoming a good coach: “When it comes to the two skills that a good coach needs to master in padel they are communication and organisation.
“If you can be a good organiser you can have groups of four to six on the court at one time and do a really good lesson. But you need good communication as well so that all the players understand.
“Those two skills are super important to becoming a good coach.
Through his work with The Padel School in particular, Sandy has done an astonishing amount to promote the sport in this country.
Emma Kimber, The Bandeja
Any sport relies on a healthy, active media presence to drive its growth. Emma launched The Bandeja in January 2022 and in doing so was the first UK padel news platform. In her work with The Bandeja, Emma has shone a light on much of the brilliant stuff going on around the UK padel scene, and deserves great credit for her efforts.
And in Europe….
In our coverage of events in Europe and beyond we have come across many impressive and truly inspirational initiatives.
It is for this reason that we wanted to highlight a couple of these.
Alessandro Ossola, Bionic People
From a life changing tragedy Alessandro has built an organisation called Bionic People which is re-writing the rule book for people with artificial or prosthetic limbs on just what is possible with padel.
Talking to the Padel Paper Alessandro recalled: “I founded an association in 2019 composed with people who suffer disability who have prosthetic limbs, wheelchairs and so on called Bionic People.
“Then in December 2021 I started to play padel and I realised then that even although I had a disability I could play and I tried to put a lot of energy into a new project and we called it: ‘Inclusive Padel’.
“So, my message is that if you have a disability like a prosthetic leg or you are in a wheelchair why not try to do padel as it can be the most inclusive sport ever.”
The Femme Open
The Femme Open is the Swedish-created initiative of building a padel community and tournaments exclusively for women.
Pepita Stonor is the person responsible for driving this initiative in the UK. The UK organisation under her leadership has just held three Femme Open tournaments in three months culminating in the City Asset Management sponsored Femme Open at the National Tennis Centre last month.
At the heart of the Swedish-originated concept is developing a large network of women to compete, network and have fun which caters for all levels from beginners to professionals.
Pepita reflected: “The Swedish founders of the Femme Open, Johanna Livijn and Johanna Aybar have created a fantastic and burgeoning community of women who come to their events to play padel, network and have fun and we are delighted to be able to bring some of that magic to the UK and welcome many new players to our tournaments.”
In summary…
So, there we have it. Many of you won’t agree with our choices, and of course, it’s just our opinion. There’s lot of incredible work going on out there that we simply aren’t aware of yet. Feel free to highlight that to us and we’ll cover what we can.
It’s been a great year…thanks for reading.
Bring on 2023!
