Pep Stonor can look back with pride on the first year of Femme Open UK – seven tournaments, star-studded training sessions, new high-profile sponsors and hundreds of women with improved health, confidence and social networks.
Femme Open began in Sweden in 2018 with the mission to bring women together to play padel, have fun, be healthy and make friends. It was Pep who brought the concept to the UK last September, having first taken up padel herself at Stoke Park in Berkshire during lockdown.
At the time, she was managing Coggi, her own digital health tech start-up, and found padel to be an excellent stress-buster. As Pep became hooked and played more, she wanted to enter competitions but found it hard to find a partner. There often weren’t enough women in the draw and competitions would be cancelled.
In 2021, Pep reached out to an ex-colleague at a marketing firm in London, Johanna Livijn, now living back in Sweden. She had started Femme Open with one tournament five years ago. Last year, they held 40.
With Johanna and co-founder Johanna Aybar’s support, Pep debuted Femme Open UK at The Hurlingham Club using her existing UK women’s padel network to organise a women-only competition for all levels. Demand soon grew.
Femme Open UK have held six further tournaments since, plus training sessions involving GB stars and led by coaches from The Padel School. Three tournaments are scheduled in the coming weeks, starting this weekend (September 10) at The Padel Hub in Slough, then Surge Padel in Harrogate on September 30 and We Are Padel Derby on October 28.
Last week, Femme Open announced a partnership with Wilson, who will become official sporting goods and ball supplier to all its tournaments in Europe, as well as providing prizes and goodie bags.
One of the highlights for Pep so far was Wilson flying in four World Padel Tour players to a Femme Open competition at Hurlingham Club in June, including the No.1 French player Alix Collombon.
Pep tells The Padel Paper: “Femme Open is more than a tournament. It is a fantastic networking opportunity, it’s fun and it’s great for fitness. It also unites women across the UK and Europe who love playing padel.
“Playing padel has been fantastic for my own wellbeing and I want to help as many women as possible to take up the sport and reap the benefits for women of getting together in a network, supporting each other, returning to sport, making new friends and having fun – not to mention getting the chance to travel, see new venues, have a fun day with friends, receive a luxury goody bag and win some fantastic prizes! What’s not to love?”
One Femme Open UK competitor, Mary Pert, said: “Femme has been invaluable in building my confidence in entering other tournaments and enjoying them. Their coaching sessions and practice tournaments have been excellent! The events are so well-organised and everything from courts to lunches to goody bags are always of a very high standard, so we can all just get on with enjoying the lovely atmosphere and all the fun!!”
Paola Pernice from Stratford Padel Club said: “I love to play padel, to compete and chat after a match. Thanks to Femme Open I had the opportunity to enter great tournaments (with fantastic goodie bags and prizes), visit different padel clubs but, most of all, meet amazing women. Together we find the confidence to play and compete more and we encourage each other to improve.”
Fiona Sibson, part of the Femme Open UK team, added: “Femme Open has given me the confidence to return to work after children and I love the community of positive women who are so uplifting and fun.”
