Great Britain’s men finished with a flourish at the FIP European Padel Championships in Sardinia as they conquered Germany to seal a seventh-place finish.
Having secured a top-eight position by finishing second in their group, GB went down with a hefty fight to eventual bronze medallists Portugal in the quarter-finals.
Sam Jones and Christian Murphy took a thrilling second-set tiebreak and Sandy Farquharson and Nikhil Mohindra went a set up in their clash, but both pairs were unable to close out victory despite highly creditable performances.
On Friday in the 5th-8th place play-offs, two GB pairs – Sam/Christian and Louie Harris/Chris Salisbury – also took a set in their ties against the Netherlands, but couldn’t quite close out victory.
So John Leach and Jordi Munos’s men were left to fight for seventh place against Germany on Saturday. They did so with aplomb: Sam and Christian swept past Agustin Reca and Matthias Wunner, then Louie and Chris clinched a nail-biter of a third-set tiebreak 7-5 against Christian Bohnke / Daniel Lingen.
GB women finished in 10th position – but their campaign hinged on an agonising defeat to the Netherlands in their crucial final group game. After Tia Norton and Aimee Gibson’s sizzling 6-2 7-6 (3) victory over Janine Hemmes and Avalon Segou Jonker 6-2 7-6 (3), Catherine Rose and Victoria Nicholas were a set and 2-0 up Maaike Betz and Rosalie van der Hoek, but the match slipped away thereafter in scorching Sardinian heat.
That unlucky defeat ended hopes of a quarter-final spot and their aspirations of qualifying for the World Championships in Doha this winter.
Instead, Libby Fletcher’s team was left to battle for ninth place in the back draw, and began promisingly with victories over Poland (courtesy of rapid wins for Tia/Aimee and Lisa Phillips/Abi Tordoff) and Switzerland, who were swatted aside in straight sets in all three ties.
That set up Saturday’s showdown with Belgium for ninth place, but it proved one step too far with Victoria/ Catherine and Lisa/Abi both falling quickly and Tia/Aimee fading after taking the opening set 6-4.
Spain, rather inevitably, won both men’s and ladies’ titles, beating Italy in both finals. Both bronze medal play-offs saw France play Portugal; Portugal won the men’s with France winning the women’s.
After the men’s win over Germany, both British teams and coaches gathered for an exhausted celebratory huddle. Both had roared each other on all week and team spirit was clearly high.
It had been a fascinating litmus test of Great Britain’s position within padel’s European hierarchy. The men capitalised on a favourable draw to secure a joyous seventh spot. For the women, that defeat to Netherlands will sting for a while, but our promising young squad members will feel there are many more such opportunities to come.
