British no.1 Aimee Gibson started the New Year as she finished the old one – with another tournament victory alongside Catherine Rose in the FIP Silver Australian Padel Open in Sydney.
The GB duo beat Spaniards Carla Fernandez Gonzalez and Nerea Guerra Santana 6-3 6-3 in the final in the New South Wales heat – completing the entire event without dropping a set.
The victory marks yet another new milestone for British padel as it is the first time a British player, male or female, has won a title on the third tier of the FIP tour.
The Sydney event was the first of the new season under FIP’s new structure in the lower tiers of the FIP world tour. The previous Platinum and Gold levels remain, but the old Star level is renamed Silver and the previous Rise and Promotion rungs have merged to form Bronze.
Aimee and Catherine had previously ‘only’ won titles at the old Rise (fourth tier) level, which they achieved together in Doha last December.
The pair will remain in Australia and now head down the coast to play in the FIP Silver Melbourne Padel Open, which begins on Wednesday (8 January).
“It was an amazing tournament, well hosted in a beautiful location and we’re very excited to go to Melbourne now,” said Catherine.
“We had some amazing wins against very strong opponents where we had to play a good solid level to come through them the way we did. It was a strong field with top 100 players, so we are proud of this achievement.”
