Aimee Gibson has made the decision to turn professional after her storming recent run of success on the LTA Padel British Tour.
The 31-year-old left-hander has won her last six tournaments, including four LTA Grade One events, which has spurred her decision to dedicate herself to competitive padel full-time.
In doing so, Aimee becomes only the second ever British female professional padel player and fifth overall (joining Tia Norton, Christian Medina Murphy, Sam Jones and Louie Harris).
Aimee only transitioned from tennis (in which she was an LTA top-15 ranked player) to padel last autumn, making her run of success since the turn of the year all the more notable.
After victories alongside Tia Norton at Rocks Lane, then in LTA Grade One events at Surge Padel in Harrogate and We Are Padel Derby, Aimee partnered with Catherine Rose for further Grade One victories at West of Scotland Padel and Guernsey.
Speaking exclusively to The Padel Paper, Aimee revealed there were several factors behind her decision to dedicate herself to the game, having previously fitted in training three times a week and competing alongside her full-time job as a tennis coach at David Lloyd in Colchester.
“Going into those Grade One tournaments with different partners and winning them has given me so much confidence,” she said. “It made me think I might as well give it a shot while I still can.
“My training has been going well. I’ve been working hard on my game for the last seven months. Hearing my coach say how much I’m improving – it has all been so positive.”
Aimee spent the first two weeks in June training in Alicante at the Bela Padel Center, supported by the LTA (which meant she missed the chance to win a fifth LTA Grade One title in a row at Stratford last weekend). There, she trained with the likes of Spain’s Christian Fuster.
“The training is on a different level, it’s just so intense,” she said. ”Being able to go out there really secured my confidence in my decision.”
Now all she needs is a regular playing partner to compete with on the FIP Tour. To help find one, Aimee’s coach Dan Troy arranged for her to visit the Barbera Indoor Padel Academy in Barcelona this week to meet and mingle with prospective new team-mates. There, she’s also been working with coach Guillermo Closa (pictured above).
“Ideally I’m looking for a foreign partner and this is an opportunity to meet some new people and players,” she said. “At the moment I’m trying to get my name out there as I’ve only just come on the scene.
“I’m going to need to get myself in those FIP tournaments. I’ve only ever been in and around the British tournaments so I need to get to know the players first and go from there.”
Aimee’s first foray on to the FIP Tour will either be at FIP Rise Koksijde in Belgium on 12-16 July or FIP Rise Al Alamein in Egypt on July 25-29. She will also play in the FIP Rise London Open at the National Tennis Centre on 1-6 August.
As she told The Padel Paper in March, her coach Dan, based at Padel United UK Maldon in Essex, has been a key figure in Aimee’s rapid ascent up the padel hierarchy.
An offer from Dan to base herself at Maldon for training and do some padel coaching was one further factor in Aimee’s decision to turn pro.
“Before, it was so hard – I’d teach tennis at David Lloyd all day then drive 40 minutes to Maldon for [padel] training. Now, when I’m in England, I’ll be teaching padel at Maldon, doing my training there and then going away to tournaments.
“I’m a little bit anxious about it, obviously, but I’m going to make sure I plan my tournament schedule well. The LTA have the training facility in Alicante, so I can come out and train, fly to tournaments, and have weeks in between of training and coaching at home. It’s a nice balance.”
