The British no.1 Tia Norton and her partner Claire Smith won the first Home of Padel (HOP) Pro grade one event, at Surge Padel in Harrogate, dropping only eight games on the way to the title. They overcame their toughest test in the final against top seeds, Lisa Phillips and Abigail Tordoff, winning in a competitive three set battle, 6-1 4-6 6-1.
The pair had not dropped a single game until the final, bypassing their first two rounds with ease. Surprisingly, the unseeded duo did not come up against the second seeds, Lindsay McCall and Rachel Scallan, who fell to an upset defeat in the first round against Susie Azoulay and Maria-Christina Balatsouka.
It has been an impressive couple of months for the 19-year-old, who picked up her first international title back in August. Alongside Smith, she looked a force to be reckoned with, as they take home their first HOP Pro title along with £200 prize money.
It was a similar story for the men’s winners, as top seeds Jorge Martinez and Javi Serrats battled their way to the title, on Saturday afternoon. They received £400 in prize money, due to there being a larger draw in the men’s event.
The Spanish duo were not quite as dominant as Norton and Smith; however, they also did not drop a set on their way to the final. Martinez and Serrats beat the third seeds, Alberto Crespo and Nikhil Mohindra, 6-2 4-6 6-2 in the final.
As well as being the eventual winner of the tournament, alongside LTA no.1 Martinez, Serrats also organises the events with co-founder John Leach. He described his final, “It was a very tough match, our opponents played very well and made us suffer a lot. But as the top seeds and favourites we always believed that we had enough to win the match.”
Serrats, who is a former LTA no.1 himself, was on the opposing side to Mohindra in the final in Harrogate, having won a previous HOP Pro event alongside him, in Middlesbrough last month.
The Spaniard said this did not cross his mind during the event, “We have played so many times against each other, a lot more than together. I love to play with him, but I am so used to playing on the opposite side of the court to him.”
The level of both finals is something that the HOP co-founder was very pleased with, “All the finalists had quite one-sided matches on the way to the final. I am happy that both finals were so competitive, it showed spectators how exciting padel can be.”
Serrats was pleased with how the weekend’s event went as a whole, especially with it being HOP’s first grade one tournament. “The tournament exceeded our expectations. There were many people watching, both the men and women’s events.”
“More people came to watch the men’s event; I think probably because it was on the Saturday, so we may have to think about that in the future. There were lots of local people and local players who came, because they wanted to watch some high quality padel.”
He also suggested that he would like to put on more of these grade one events on in the future, “The LTA are doing a great job promoting padel, and I hope they are happy with the success of this event and continue to support us as we to hold more of these in the future.”
