Cristiano Ronaldo was in the crowd as British No.1 Christian Medina Murphy got his season under way at the first Premier Padel event of 2025 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
CR7, who plays for Al-Nassr in the Saudi Pro League, was sat in a private sky box of the Padel Rush Arena, cheering on his Portuguese countrymen, Nuno and Miguel Deus, who were playing Christian and partner Marcos Cordoba on day two of the Riyadh Season P1 event.
Alas, the Deus brothers wrapped up the match 6-1, 6-4 in 53 minutes to qualify for the main draw, which clearly delighted the former Manchester United and Real Madrid legend.
When asked about his love for padel in a recent interview, Ronaldo claimed “I play every day”. The 40-year-old recently purchased the Lisboa Racket Centre and played with FIP no.1 Arturo Coello in a video that has amassed over 2.1 million views on YouTube.
After being eliminated in the second qualifying round, Christian took to Instagram to look back on his performance in the season-opening tournament.
