By RJ Mitchell
NIKHIL MOHINDRA has confirmed that he will be relocating to Spain next month in a bid to break the top-100 padel rankings.
The 21-year-old is the no.1 ranked player in the LTA domestic padel rankings and a Great Britain international who has already taken part in a padel World Cup.
But with just two days to go until he battles it out at the FIP RISE London Padel Open at the National Tennis Centre, Mohindra has confirmed that when it comes to developing his game it really is a case of location, location, location.
Projecting forward to the prospect of making the Bela Padel Academy in Alicante, which is run by Argentina’s former World No.1 Fernando Belasteguin, his new base, Mohindra has no doubt that it could be a career defining moment.
He said: “I am moving to Spain for a year in order to play full-time and climb the world rankings and my aim is try and obtain a ranking inside the top-100 by this time next year.
“So come mid-September I will be based at Alicante training at the Bela Padel Academy where I will be working under Fernando Belasteguin, who is known as Bela, and is rated as the best player ever.
“The level I will be training at will be amazing and I will working on court with world ranked players like Christian Fuster Simarro every day.
“I am realistic and the target for my partner Sandy (Farquharson) and myself is to win as many matches as we can this week at the London FIP RISE but we are facing a lot of world class players who are full-time pros so to win one match in the main draw would be a positive.
“A big incentive in going to Alicante to work with Fernando and his team is to come back and win the London RISE next year.
“On the LTA British Rankings I am No.1 but in the world rankings Christian (Murphy) is above me and he is based in Spain and so for me that is the move I need to make to progress my career the way I want.
“It is also a big year in terms of representing Great Britain. I played at the last world champs where I was undefeated but now we have to qualify again for Qatar in October and after that and by end of this year I am hoping to be in the top-three within the GB team.
“Moving to Alicante to the Bela Academy will, I hope, make the difference when it comes to all of these things.”
The London Padel Open will welcome several of the biggest stars from across the world – including world No.77 Ignacio Vilariño Gestoso and his partner Jabor Al-Mutawa with the former having notched 22 wins in 2022 alone.
The second seeds will be the Spanish/French combo of Spaniard Ricardo Martinez Sanchez and Frenchman Jeremy Scatena, while world No.76 Carlos Jimenez Casas from Spain joins up with Bastien Blanque after having reached the semi-finals at the Tau Cerámica Getafe Challenger back in April.
Mohindra’s partnership with Team GB vet Sandy Farquharson is a classic case of youth and experience and the former is upbeat about their chances at the NTC this week: “In this partnership I am the runner and Sandy is the brains and hopefully it works well this week for us,” said Nikhil.
He continued: “But Sandy’s experience is such a great factor as he played for GB for quite a while and he was also an excellent tennis player and that all works well with my youth.
“Another big influence on my career and the man who first got me introduced to high level padel in 2018 was John Leach and I work with him weekly at the Harbour Club. We first met in Guernsey where he knocked me out of the tournament and John has been a huge influence on me along with Sandy.
“When it comes to my partnership with Sandy we have played a WPT event in Sweden in Malmo and I feel like we gel and complement each other well as a pairing. We are both very fast in terms of movement and we close the net out quickly and probably our volleys are our strongest weapon.
“I would say that in the air we have work to do in terms of closing out the points. Finishing the point is the key and in this respect the smash is the big weapon I need to improve in my game. That is the difference between finishing the point on your terms and having it turned around against you and then losing it.
“But we are aggressive and like to rush the net and the more tournaments we get under our belts the better we will get. So London RISE is going to be a big test for us but also an opportunity for us to hopefully continue our development and progression as a pairing.
“It’s also a really important event as it is the first professional event of its magnitude to be held in the UK and has really attracted a strong entry.
“I train on the court at the NTC and with home advantage I definitely have something to prove but it is just such a positive thing for padel in the UK for us to be having this event at the NTC and really exciting.”
Interestingly in a bid to leave no stone unturned as he looks to progress his career the GB international also revealed he has been working with a sports psychologist: “I have always suffered with nerves when I have been on court and have been seeing a sports psychologist in this respect to help deal with it and I am learning to turn the nerves into positive energy,” said Mohindra.
He added: “That is a really positive experience and one that will only help benefit my game and for me it is all part of the process and the journey of trying to be the best padel player I can be and this week the FIP RISE London Padel Open is another big step along that path.”
