GB men’s no.2 Sam Jones and women’s head coach Libby Fletcher admitted the European Padel Championships were a “bittersweet” experience as both teams narrowly missed out on securing qualification for the World Championships.
GB’s men finished in seventh place in Sardinia while the women’s team were 10th. In both cases, that appears to be just one position short of securing qualification for October’s World Padel Championships in Doha, Qatar.
The men’s and women’s teams will essentially be top of the reserve list should any other nation not fulfil their place (for example, if the hosts Qatar don’t enter a women’s team) but as things stand, GB will not dine at international padel’s top table this winter.
Knowing that Spain, France, Portugal, Belgium and Italy had already secured their places in the men’s draw in Doha by virtue of finishing in the top nine at the last World Championships in 2022, GB were informed by FIP officials on arrival in Sardinia that they would need to finish in the top two of the other European nations who had not already qualified. That essentially meant finishing above Sweden and/or the Netherlands.
Having qualified for the quarter-finals, where they lost to Portugal, GB’s men had the chance to seal one of those two spots by beating the Netherlands in the 5/8 position tie. They came agonisingly close.
Sam Jones and Christian Murphy were a set up against Bram Meijer and Sten Richters, and Louie Harris and Chris Salisbury took the second set on a tie break against Menno Nolten and Bert Van Opstal, but both Brit pairs went down in the deciding third sets.
“We had it in our hands to qualify but fell short at the end,” Sam told The Padel Paper. “It was so frustrating.”
Even more frustrating was that Sweden were a whisker away from losing to Belgium in their group, which would have seen them fail to make the quarter-finals. That would have made Great Britain’s eventual seventh place finish enough to qualify for the Worlds.
Nonetheless, Sam felt that the team made great strides and was “the most competitive British team I’ve ever seen.”
He said: “We played the Netherlands two years ago and lost two matches pretty comfortably, but this time we had two matches that could’ve gone either way. It’s a bit frustrating because I think it’s the best level as a team I’ve ever known.
“We had three really strong pairs and we felt that, barring Spain, we could go into any match capable of winning it. As a nation we’ve got quite a competitive team now which has given us a lot of confidence for the next tournaments.
“The support we had from the women’s team and friends and family was by far the best I’ve ever experienced. I’ve represented GB maybe 12 times now including juniors and this was by far best atmosphere. When you hear your team and supporters chanting your name, it makes you dig that little bit deeper.”
One consolation for GB’s men is that a top-eight finish does ensure their automatic qualification for next year’s European Championships.
For GB’s women, a heartbreaking defeat to the Netherlands also proved to be the pivotal moment in their campaign.
In their last group match, Tia Norton and Aimee Gibson’s sizzling 6-2 7-6 (3) victory over Janine Hemmes and Avalon Segou Jonker put them one up. Lisa Phillips and Abi Tordoff lost heavily to Stephanie Weterings and Marcella Koek, then in the decider Catherine Rose and Victoria Nicholas were a set and 2-0 up on Maaike Betz and Rosalie van der Hoek, but the match slipped away thereafter in the scorching Sardinian heat.
They ended up finishing 10th after wins over Poland and Switzerland, then a defeat to Belgium. But that loss to the Netherlands, which consigned them to the back draw, meant it was the Dutch and Denmark who claimed the two coveted spots for Qatar.
GB women’s coach Libby Fletcher told The Padel Paper: “On paper, we’ve not come away with the result we wanted, but in terms of the whole LTA programme and the improvements we’ve made, we’ve come away with everything.
“I feel really, really positive coming away from it and excited about the future of GB padel. Only Alvarro [Fernandez] and Tia had played in a major championship before in our team. The team spirit was immense and we’ve all gained so much experience.”
On the pivotal defeat to the Netherlands, Libby admitted: “Obviously, we were bitterly, bitterly disappointed to lose that one. But 12 months ago we were nowhere near the Dutch. The Spanish captain, Iciar Montez, came up to me afterwards and said, ‘Great Britain have arrived.’ For me, that’s the biggest compliment you can get.”
