CHRISTIAN MURPHY has revealed that he has one target for the FIP London RISE event and that is to win it.
The GB No.1 ranked player arrives at the National Tennis Centre for the biggest padel event ever to be held in the UK with his confidence boosted after a fine showing in the qualifiers at the Madrid Premier Padel P1.
Murphy and partner Javi Navarro lost in the second round of qualifying after an epic three-set battle with the world ranked No.45 Spanish pairing of Marmolejo and Melendez.
Earlier this year, Murphy became part of the first British team (with Sam Jones) to win a Tour match at the FIP 525,000 Euro Italy Major.
This time Jones is partnering Welsh wizard Louie Harris as they continue to underline their status as two of the nation’s rising stars and develop a formidable partnership which has already seen them finish runners-up at the LTA National Padel Tour event in Stratford.
However for Murphy, with friends and family as well as Team GB head coach John Leach in attendance at the NTC, there is a palpable determination to deliver a string of performances that will underline his status as the UK’s No.1 padel player and culminate in victory at the 9000 Euro tournament.
The event runs from Thursday to Sunday and Murphy said: “It is simple – we want to win the London RISE. It is going to be tough as there are so many good players, but we believe we have a chance. Our confidence is high and we will give it our best.
“You have the top players from Germany, Holland, Belgium and so many Spanish pairs from main draws in the FIPs but if we play at our best we can win any of these matches.
“It is the biggest tournament in the UK at the moment but it is only one more tournament and I have the experience to handle that.
“Also it is great that we have the guys from the LTA Padel along supporting us and I am looking forward to catching up with John Leach and the GB Team.
“We know that the conditions will be different in London compared to Spain last week, where it was in the mid-30s temperature wise. What is also great is that we are straight into the main draw and do not have to qualify.
“Now it is up to us to make the most of this opportunity.”
Looking back at last week’s defeat in the Madrid qualifiers Murphy says that despite the frustration of ultimate failure it has only underlined how small the margins are between success and failure as well as firing his hunger for success at the NTC.
He said: “We won our first round in straight sets and then in the second round we were on court for two hours and 42 minutes, which is the longest match I have played and it was very tough.
“Physically it was really draining and it was so hard to give 100% for the full match. But we played really well and we believe we can beat anyone now as we have improved so much and that match showed that.
“These guys, Marmolejo and Melendez, are ranked World No.45 and they made the second round of the Italy Major in Rome where they played against (World No.1 ranked pairing) Lebron and Galan and lost 6-4, 7-6. So they are a really tough pair but we were very close to beating them and that has given our self-belief a big boost.
“Padel is super-tight and you can win matches and lose matches by very small margins and we will give it 100% this week and see where that takes us.
“We do have technical details we need to improve like our work off the wall but we learned we can beat anyone and that we now must build on this performance in London.
“For sure I am super-excited to play London with all the teams there, and also that it is a FIP Tournament is massive. It really shows how quickly padel is growing as a sport
“We know how important the London RISE tournament is for padel in the UK and it would be great if things go well as there are a lot of people who are important to me who will be there like sponsors, my agent Olly Morgan and as I said the Team GB people.
“So, I want to produce my best form and also build on how well Javi and I played in Madrid. Hopefully this time we will also get the breaks we didn’t in Spain.”
But with the Team GB World Cup qualifiers soon to be announced Murphy admits that this is an important week for more than one reason, adding: “I hope to fit in a couple of training sessions with the British team and catch up with them again as of course it will not be long before we have the World Cup qualifiers coming along.
“That is also very important to me and to everyone else in the squad, and apart from anything else it will be good to see my team mates again.”
