A new UK padel circuit is linking up with Spain’s biggest amateur series to offer British recreational players the chance to qualify for an international grand final on the Costa Brava in September.
The Fast4Padel UK Amateur Circuit has formed a partnership with Even Padel, which is expanding its hugely popular Spanish series out to an estimated 30,000 players in 25 countries.
Winners from each nation including the UK will head, all expenses paid (minus flights), to the Even Padel Masters Final in Blanes near Barcelona to compete for the de facto title of world amateur champion.
The UK qualifying series will be managed by Fast4Padel’s London-based co-CEOs, Victor Aguirre and Nico Benitez (pictured above), who run Fast4Padel’s popular ‘Weekend Warriors‘ padel camps in Spain.
The Fast4Padel UK Amateur Circuit will begin on 26 April at Slazenger Padel in Leeds, with two further legs in Harrogate on 24 May and back in Leeds on 7 June, and an as-yet unconfirmed fourth event later in June. Although Fast4Padel want to develop competitive opportunities in the north first, they plan to expand into the south next season.
Points accumulated at these one-day events will feed into a ‘Race to Spain’ ranking and the top-ranked male and female players will be able to choose a partner to accompany them to Blanes for the Masters Final to compete against the respective winners from all competing nations.
Each event will have men’s open A and B draws and a female draw. Although fewer ‘Race to Spain’ ranking points will be on offer in the men’s B draw (for players at roughly level 2.0-3.5 on Playtomic), there will be plenty of prizes on offer for participants at both levels.
All draws will be in a round-robin format with 45-minute matches, with the top two pairs going through to semi-finals and finals. Each event will blend challenges, prizes, food, music and competition.
Each participating nation has freedom to define ‘amateur’ by their own parameters. Fast4Padel have decided to exclude any player ranked in the LTA men’s top 100 and the LTA women’s top 50. Anyone below that ranking is permitted to enter.
A second, expanded UK season of UK qualifying events will begin in October, leading to a second climatic Even Padel Masters Final in summer 2026.
The new circuit adds to a busy calendar of UK padel tournaments, including the HOP Tour, LTA tournaments from Grade 1 to 6, the Britain Padel Tour and the new R3 Padel Cup. However, Fast4Padel co-CEO Nico told The Padel Paper there is more than enough room for more dates on the competitive calendar.
Nico explained: “You may think the UK has got a lot of tournaments, but it’s nothing compared to Spain. Even Padel Tour is Spain’s biggest amateur circuit, with six regional leagues, and now they want to expand, attract new sponsors and establish a global presence.”
Nico and co-CEO Victor are regular competitors in British padel tournaments, so have ideas for how to iron out some perceived deficiencies in the formats they’ve experienced themselves.
“At some tournaments we’ve played in, you might drive a long way to get there, win your opening game 6-0, 6-0, wait for four hours, then face the GB no.1 in the very next round,” said Victor. “People want competitive games and we want an average club player to be able to compete and even win something.”
Nico added: “We’ve played in a lot of tournaments so we know the pain points. We want to play people at our own level and we don’t want to wait for hours in between matches. How can you go from playing someone who’s not that great to playing one of the best players in the country, in successive rounds of the same tournament? We hope we can avoid those experiences for our players.”
- To enter the upcoming Fast4Padel UK Amateur Circuit tournaments in Leeds and Harrogate, click here
- Fast4Padel also have an Ambassador Programme, with key individuals who help connect and support padel enthusiasts across the UK. Read more here
