SIR Andy Murray has revealed that he is already a seasoned padel player.
The double Wimbledon Champion was on hand at Game4Padel’s three-day padel festival at Westfield with brother Jamie, the former World No.1 doubles tennis player and Tia Norton – the GB No.1 women padel player – to help publicise the sport at Europe’s largest retail centre.
Both Murrays are also Game4Padel ambassadors and investors and the first knight of British tennis explained he attended the Sánchez-Casal Academy, Barcelona, Spain as a 15 year old child.
The former World No.1 tennis player said: “It was a fun experience playing at Westfield on the pop-up court. I’ve played a bit of padel before – I first came across it in Spain when I was training out there, and really enjoyed it.
“So it was nice teaming up with Jamie this morning and we played against British number one Tia Norton who gave me a few tips on how to hit off the back wall which was very helpful.”
The Murray’s appearance earlier this morning brought with it a flurry of media teams from the UK’s major broadcasters with Sky, CNN, ITV, BBC, and Channel 5 all turning up to grab a piece of the British tennis legend on the Game4Padel pop up court in Westfield’s Central Atrium for broadcast later tonight.
The brothers also spent time playing enthusiastically with seven children from the ‘Give It Your Max ‘charity who are all based locally near to Westfield.
The court was purpose-built for a three-day showcase to illustrate why padel is growing at such a rate of knots in Europe and now around the UK, with visitors to the centre able to try out the shiny new sport and watch celebrity Pro-Am matches, coaching sessions, exhibitions and much more featuring the likes of GB tennis icons like Andrew Castle and Annabel Croft and British number one padel player, Tia Norton.
Game4Padel CEO Michael Gradon has no doubt that the Westfield pop-up padel showcase was the perfect platform to raise the sport’s profile to the next level in the UK: “Being able to bring padel to Europe’s premier shopping destination is great for the sport because it provides us with a fantastic platform to take it to a much wider audience.
“Padel is an incredibly addictive, fun game which is highly sociable and easy to pick up and it thrives in urban settings and inner cities in countries like Spain and Italy.
“We hope that anyone that comes across the sport in person at Westfield or by reading, watching, or hearing about it because of this activation will be interested in finding out more. We have plans to open courts at up to 50 new venues in the next year, and so accessing a court will be much easier for people all across the country”.
Padel was originally started in Mexico and quickly swept through South America and then into Europe with Spain, where it has displaced tennis as the no.2 participatory sport behind football, is reckoned to have over 20,000 padel courts, and an estimated six million active players.
The pop-up padel court at Westfield is an Instantpadel court, a new world-unique design that doesn’t require any major groundwork, enabling the court to be erected in six hours which was a crucial factor in making the event achievable.
A jam-packed schedule of activities took place on the court throughout the three days, including an ‘on-the-hour, Open Play Session’ where shoppers were encouraged to get on court and ‘give it a go!’
Game4Padel is also partnering with charity, Give It Your Max who brought local children to Westfield to try out padel for the first time and hit with the Murrays.
Christoffer Granfelt from Instantpadel commented: “We are delighted to be partnering with Game4Padel in being part of this exciting event at Westfield. Our world-unique solution combined with Game4Padel’s knowledge of the UK market, will allow us to rapidly expand the availability of courts all across the UK, particularly in urban settings”.
Melanie Lalou, Head of Westfield Rise, UK said: “It’s brilliant to welcome an emerging and well-loved sport to Westfield London, alongside appearances from a host of iconic sporting legends. Westfield offers appealing spaces and an avid audience for brands to engage with, making the centres the perfect destinations for brands to reach new customers.
“We’re thrilled to be partnering with Game4Padel to bring this engaging pop-up experience to life and inspire visitors to try their hand at padel.”
Padel is played in 91 countries and is the fastest growing sport in many countries such as Sweden and Italy with celebrity fans of the sport including Lionel Messi, Ronaldo, David Beckham, Jurgen Klopp and Virgil van Dijk who is also a Game4Padel investor.
Padel is strongly tipped to become an Olympic sport by 2032.
Annabel Croft recently opened the state-of-the-art Parabola Edinburgh Park Business Park two canopied court complex.
