Alexander Loughlan is now sixth in the GB padel rankings — and the Glaswegian has taken the long way around to reach the heights of the professional game.
The 29-year-old, who has a performance background in tennis and football, now partners GB no.3 Louie Harris on the padel court. The duo started working together after Loughlan made the switch to play on the right-hand side, a decision that didn’t sit too comfortably with Loughlan at first, but has ended up taking his game to new levels.
The Denmark-based Scot played with Frankie Langan last year, then started playing with Louie around nine months ago. “I had always played on the left, but moving over to the right has opened up a lot of opportunities for me in Denmark, Sweden and for the national team,” Alexander told The Padel Paper.
“In our first tournament together, we lost to the second seeds, but we looked at each other and thought, ‘Okay, there is potential here if we can go close against guys this good’.
“[I made the change] because in Denmark, Oscar Sebber is probably the best player in the country, and he’s a left-sided player. We would always train together because Mark Møller coached both of us. He joked a lot, saying me and him would win a lot and we should play together.
“At the time, I didn’t like the idea of playing on the right because I didn’t think I could compete enough there. We tried it a little bit, then we thought why not give it a real shot, and it’s turned out to be quite successful.
“I’ve spoken with a couple of people and they almost think that it’s better if I stay on the right. I’m almost 6 foot 5, so I’m not your typical right-side player. To have experience on both sides can be quite unique. It isn’t necessarily an old-fashioned style of padel any more where the left-hand side does everything, it’s quite modern with more aggressive right-side players. I would say it has made me a better player as now I can pair up with left-side players who are also very aggressive.”
Loughlan first discovered padel while working as a coach at Club La Santa, a holiday resort in Lanzarote that’s centred around sporting activities. Working as a tennis and football coach, a then 20-year-old Loughlan wasn’t focused on chasing a career in professional padel, but a handful of games against some locals opened his eyes to the possibility.
He said: “I played tennis all throughout my youth and then moved into coaching, I had finished sixth form and had re-done some A Levels. I didn’t get amazing grades, so I was in a bit of a tough situation with what to do for work. The chance came up to move out to this amazing place in Club La Santa. It felt like a perfect fit. I really like being in big, social environments and I love being in sporting environments, so it definitely worked.
“At the end of my time in Lanzarote in late 2019, I went over to the other side of the island and played with a couple of locals. That opened my eyes to having the ability to play padel at an even higher level. The smashes, rallies, points, it was almost addictive at that point and that was what attracted me to the sport.”
After leaving Lanzarote, Loughlan moved to Copenhagen, Denmark, in order to take up a role as a full-time tennis coach, as well as playing recreational football. In the 2021/22 season, he earned himself a semi-professional contract at Akademisk Boldklub. The contract meant that he had to put a stop to his other sporting exploits, instead working as a sales representative for the duration of his time at the club.
Loughlan was required to train four times a week on top of his full-time job, a commitment that ultimately led to him walking away from the sport due to the intensity of a role that was not a full-time career. This was the moment where his padel career started to take off.
“I never really had any time to play padel. I played a little bit on the side, but it wasn’t until the end of 2022 where I ended up competing in the National Championships in Denmark and I got to the semi-final. It got me thinking ‘Okay, if I can make it to this level without training, how far can I make it if I actually take it seriously?’”
After working as a coach for MoveYourGame, owned by Møller, Loughlan would make the move into professional padel. Møller coaches the Brit twice a week in Denmark, as well as a couple of training sessions in Helsingborg, Sweden, with Swedish coach Andreas Johansson. Training in partnership with Sebber, the duo spend time working with Adam Axelsson, Daniel Windahl and Simon Vazquez, players in and around the FIP top 100.
“It is quite inspiring to train with them. I think my training environment is better than any of the GB guys that I talk to actually. Every time I’m over and they ask about it, they get a little bit jealous because I have the chance to train with these guys. I think they’d love to have that chance.
“If you train with better players, you get better yourself. You always want to be the worst one at training. I know that sounds a bit funny, but it makes you want to work harder and it makes you want to be better. At the start, it was a little bit intimidating for sure. These guys are all full-time professional players and I’d just started to take padel a little bit seriously.
“In the beginning, I had to get used to the intensity of it, but now I think we have established that we can train well and we can come close to these guys in games across three sets. It took a while to get into the setup with the Swedish coach, I think he was a bit sceptical at the start, but like everything you have to work your way in.”
