By RJ Mitchell
GB International Karen Hazzard has admitted that the clock is already ticking on her bid to make the British Ladies team for the European Group stages of the World Cup qualifiers being held at We Are Padel Derby between September 29 and October 02.
16 European countries will be battling it out to make the 2022 World Cup, which will once again be held at the Khalifa International Tennis & Squash Complex in Qatar from November 1 to November 6.
Hazzard is currently combining running the Game4Padel one-court pop-up club in Brighton at the Withdean Sports Complex while also assisting the LTA, for whom she will be hosting a women’s padel engagement evening at the National Tennis Centre later this month.
A county standard tennis player, Hazzard had to decline the invitation to play for Sussex at county week recently but is determined that a jam-packed professional life will not stop her doing everything she can to return to the international fold after an impressive third place finish in 2019 at the European Championships with the national team.
As Karen revealed she is determined to make sure that time is no hazard to her hopes of a return to national service: “Derby is my aim and to try help be a part of the qualifying bid for the 2022 World Championships in Qatar. I am not there yet but that is definitely my aim to make the open category squad once again, it would be something I would be thrilled to achieve.
“It isn’t going to be easy as I will have to fit it around work but if I need to get on court during lunch breaks I will do it. I teach full-time for 30-40 hours per week and if you are doing that then fitting in your practise times in terms of energy levels and injury prevention is pretty tough as that is quite a high volume of exercise.
“Recently work has taken over and I have not been competing over the last three or four months but I am determined to start playing again as soon as possible and that I hope will all lead to Derby.
“My best padel achievement to date was coming third in Europe in the open category in 2019 and that was huge for us in the UK and particularly for the women’s side.
“I also played in the World Championships in Las Vegas in April in the seniors at over – 35 level with categories going up to over-50s, with the women’s team coming eighth and the men’s team 16th,and that was a great achievement for both sides.”
Hazzard was an interested spectator at the FIP RISE London Open held at the NTC last weekend where former British tennis No.1 Laura Robson saw her first flirtation with padel come to a spectacularly brisk conclusion after just 32 minutes of her first-round match.
Given her tennis background Hazzard was well placed to pronounce on the whys and wherefores of making the transition: “In terms of transitioning from tennis to padel, as I found, it is not always an immediate transition to make,” admitted the GB international.
Karen continued: “Yes, there are similarities like volleying and smashing but in terms of the rhythm of the game and the tactical element it is completely different to tennis and of course there are the walls and the speed of the game which is something a tennis player will not have encountered.
“If you are a tennis player and you come onto the padel court and hit the ball really hard someone like Hansie Ruddick (Robson’s first round opponent at the NTC & GB padel international) is just going to use these walls and play that ball back past you but it is a transition that can be made and if I can do it plenty of others can and I’m sure Laura will.
Yet the respected padel coach was clearly impressed with proceedings at Roehampton last weekend where the LTA’s first fully professional padel tournament was undoubtedly a resounding success as well as an event that attracted top-class operators from all over Europe and as far a field as Japan and Qatar.
None of which was lost on Hazzard: “I was at the NTC on Saturday afternoon and there was some fantastic padel played and it was a brilliant achievement for Tia Norton and her partner to win the ladies tournament.
“I am sure that after the success of the London Open it will be the first of many such tournaments held in the UK. The other huge positive is it was very well-attended and that really underlined to me how quickly the sport is growing.”
A youthful 38 who exudes energy and life Hazzard was also ideally suited to pronounce on the difference between ‘open’ level play and age-group action and she said: “I think the difference is the pace is a little quicker and the players are a little more offensive in terms of their net play.
“In senior competition the pace is a little different so I very much try to practise mainly with men or players who are faster than me.
“In Vegas that all worked for me and I was comfortable with the pace and lost one match out of five which was very pleasing.”
