By RJ Mitchell
FOLLOWING yesterday’s Padel Paper Exclusive that Wimbledon is being considered as a possible venue for a FIP Premier Padel Major Great Britain’s No.1 woman Tia Norton has issued a: “Let’s Get Padel to Wimbledon!” plea.
Norton is headlining the UK’s first ever fully professional padel tournament at the National Tennis Centre this weekend where she is seeded no.2 with partner Carlo Fito Fernandez in the FIP RISE London Padel Open.
But after recently viewing the Greenweez FIP Paris Premier Padel Major, which was held at the home of French tennis, the Stade Roland-Garros, Norton has revealed exclusively to The Padel Paper that her first thought when seeing a padel court on Philip – Chatrier (Court) was: ‘Why can’t it happen at The All England Club?’
The action from the Bois de Boulogne was screened by more than 100 broadcasters, including a live broadcast of the final on Sky Mix in the UK while the first Paris Premier Padel Major had 25,000 spectators flocking to Roland-Garros to attend the largest padel tournament ever held in France.
All of which came hard on the heels of a similar success at the Foro Italico, the historic home of the Italian Open tennis championships in Rome and as such this has prompted the LTA’s new lead for padel competition Sam Kemp to admit in an exclusive interview with the Padel Paper yesterday it would be: “A logical conversation to have in this context to see if we could do something at Wimbledon.”
24-hours later speaking exclusively to The Padel Paper Norton said: “The first thing that went through my mind when I watched the Paris Premier Padel Major at Roland-Garros was: ‘Let’s get it to Wimbledon now!’
“Roland Garros and The Foro Italico are great historic venues but Wimbledon is THE venue out there, it is at a different level to anywhere else with all its history and I am not bias just because I am British!
“So, Wimbledon would be a game changer. It would be the reference point for padel not just in the UK but around the world. I grew up playing tennis and it will always have a big part of my heart but for padel to be one day played there would be a dream.
“Obviously at the moment the Premier Padel Major events are only male so if there were to be an event at Wimbledon it would break my heart as there would be no women playing in it but I believe there are plans to introduce a Women’s Major. I am really hoping the female game will progress to these as soon as possible.
“One day it would be a dream of mine to play somewhere like Wimbledon especially since I was there are as a kid a couple of times and in fact I was a spectator earlier this summer when I saw Iga Świątek.”
Concerns about the impact of a padel court being erected on the hallowed lawns of SW19 should be allayed by the fact that the equally treasured terre battue of the French capital’s fabled 16th arrondissement was left unscathed by essentially a pop-up padel court on the French equivalent of Centre Court, Philippe – Chatrier Court.
This is something Norton believes must help soothe nerves: “The technology behind padel court building is tremendous and in essence the court on Philippe-Chatrier at Roland-Garros was a pop-up and I am sure they could build a similar court that would not impact on the grass at Wimbledon.
“But in terms of what it could do for padel it really would be off the scale and you have to say that where there is a will there is usually a way. If someone had said to me they would build a padel court on Chatrier at Roland Garros to host a tournament there a year back I would have laughed at them.
“But now it is part of the new reality in our game and that is what makes it so exciting.”
The FIP RISE London Padel Open will also see the debut of former British No.1 tennis player Laura Robson into the world of competitive padel and this is something that Norton views as another positive development: “Laura Robson has a very big profile in the UK in terms of British tennis and so it shows that padel is up there with tennis that these top tennis players want to come over to padel and compete at a good level in tournaments like the FIP RISE London. So, it is 100% a positive thing,” said the GB No.1.
Tia continued: “That can only do good for the sport and put it out more in public and hopefully Laura enjoys that experience and that will be positive for padel no question.
“Obviously I played tennis from the age of seven until 12 and then from 12 on I have played padel and the biggest piece of advice I can give Laura is not to go backwards on the court as you always forget the backwall behind you and for me that was the biggest adjustment.
“Also in tennis there is a lot of power used but in padel it is more about the placement of shots and the tempo change and that is the most important thing, you can use power but you have to have soft hands and you have to know when to use the one or the other.
“In padel if you are at the net you have the advantage immediately and you are attacking and controlling your opponents who will have to lift most times but obviously Laura coming from tennis she will have a really good hands and having been British No.1 she won’t get that slot without being able to play a decent net game. So she will be capable of that for sure.”
Looking forward to this weekend’s battle with Norton and partner Carla Fito Fernandez scheduled to be on court tomorrow against Spanish pairing Rosa Alonso and Julia Garcia the GB No.1 has issued a bullish: ‘In it to win it’ battle cry.
Norton said: “For sure we are in the tournament to win it and I don’t think there is any reason why we can’t win it. The players that are in the draw are of great quality and of course it is interesting to see some of the British entrants in terms of their tennis backgrounds but most of the other competitors I have seen play already and I know who they are and I believe we have a very good chance in this tournament.
“Over the year we have been growing as a pair in terms of confidence and communication and we need to keep going in that direction. But the key thing is confidence and having belief when you are on the court, we know we are capable of so much more and this week it is about demonstrating that at the NTC.
“I think padel this last year has shown the right growth in the UK in terms of the amount of tournaments being played and the numbers of those competing in them so having an international FIP tournament at a place like the NTC is going to do nothing but good for the sport.
“I think it will really show people around the world how strongly padel is growing in the UK.”
