British No.1 Christian Medina Murphy says his experience at this week’s Ooredoo Qatar Major in Doha will drive him to ‘push harder’ in pursuit of elite-level success.
Medina Murphy partnered Spain’s Javier Rodriguez Marquez at the first Premier Padel competition of 2023, where they lost 6-4, 7-6 on Monday to fifth-seeded pair Carlos Perez Cabeza and Jose Roman Martinez in the first qualifying round.
Currently ranked 153 on the World Padel Tour, Medina Murphy is Britain’s best padel player. LTA Head of Padel Tom Murray says he has the potential to break into the top 100 before the year is out.
Medina Murphy described this week’s experience of playing at a Major championship “quite amazing.” He told The Padel Paper: “It is an incredible tournament. It had so many super elements – the courts, players’ lounge, medical service, hotel… the only thing that was not pretty good was my match!
“My motivation is so, so high to get into that type of tournament more and grab a place in the main draw to see how close you are to the world’s best players. The prize money is high and I want to compete with them.
“The experience really motivates me to earn more opportunities to play there. When I come back from that type of tournament I try to push harder to do better next time.”
The 24-year-old played in three Premier Padel majors last year as well as the World Championship in Qatar and feels he is assimilating to that level of competition.
“I feel I am getting really, really close, for sure,” he said. “I have now played quite a few top 40 players. Sometimes we’ve been unlucky and many times we’ve had good matches which have been really close.
“I am in my best moment, for sure. I am training up to six hours per day [at the Jordi Muñoz Academyin Alicante] and I am pushing the best players in the world – but it’s not easy to beat them when they are constantly improving too.
“The economic situation is also tough. It’s so expensive to play all the tournaments, plus the flights, hotels, physio and personal training. That makes everything harder.”
As he set off to compete in this weekend’s qualifiers in Madrid for the WPT Paraguay Padel Open 1000, Medina Murphy was hoping to hear about forthcoming LTA funding for elite players, which would alleviate some of his financial pressure.
Meanwhile, Medina Murphy this week tied up a sponsorship deal with UK Padel Courts. He will work with the Cheshire-based business as an Ambassador, providing knowledge and experience to support their growth in the UK.
“I’m delighted to be working with UK Padel Courts to help to develop the sport I love in England and the rest of the United Kingdom,” he said.
“I fell in love with padel when I was just 15-years-old and was lucky enough to turn professional four years ago. It is an amazing sport and it is fantastic to see it catching on back home.”
