Great Britain’s women qualified for the FIP World Cup for the first time since 2021 but the men’s team fell agonisingly short on Saturday at at the European qualifier in Madrid.
Spearheaded by the sublime Aimee Gibson and Catherine Rose, GB women coasted through their two group matches against Norway and Serbia with minimal fuss, and received a bye through the quarter-finals by virtue of being top seeds.
They faced Poland in the semi-final on Saturday and swept to a third clean sweep victory of the week, kickstarted by Gibson and Rose’s 6-0 6-2 victory over Julia Pacocha and Magdalena Kiszczynska (the GB No.1 pair dropped just three games all week).
In the second match, 16-year-old debutante Chloe de la Mare and Victoria Nicholas had to dig very deep against Aleksandra Rosolska and Zofia Piorkowska for a 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 triumph.
The two winning semi-finalists both earned places at the FIP World Cup in Doha (2-7 November). There, GB will join Germany, who beat Denmark 2-1 in the other European qualifier semi-final.
The other nations competing in Doha will be: Spain, Argentina, Italy, Portugal, Netherlands, Sweden, France, Brazil, Belgium, Qatar (hosts), USA, Paraguay, Chile and the winner of October’s Africa-Asia qualifier.
It will be the first time GB’s women have competed at a World Padel Championships without their male compatriots.
GB women’s captain Libby Fletcher commented: “This is a new era for LTA Padel and GB players. Last year we showed Europe how strong we are and now we have shown that, with a ‘one team’ mentality, we are starting to bridge the gap between us and the more experienced countries.”
Spanish legend Iciar Montes, who was added to the GB women’s bench for the first time in Madrid, added: “It’s a big milestone for GB Padel and I am happy to work with this group of players. I am proud of the performances that the players put on the court this week. It’s not easy to make it into the top 16 teams in the world.”
Agony for Britain’s men
There were contrasting emotions for GB’s men, however, as they lost their decisive semi-final against Germany in a six-and-a-half hour epic, having finished top of their group and beaten Ukraine 2-0 in the quarter-finals.
There was an early setback when Sam Jones and Chris Salisbury went down 6-4, 6-7, 3-6 to Johannes Lindmeyer and Benjamin Fitzon, having served for the match at 6-5 in the second set.
British national champions Louie Harris and Alex Loughlan levelled the tie with a gusty 4-6, 7-6 (9-7), 7-6 (7-4) victory over Agustin Reca and Matthias Wunner.
That set up a nail-biting decider for GB No.1 Christian Medina Murphy and Alfonso Patacho against Christian Bohnke and Nick Merten.
After taking the first set, the British pair went an early break down in the second but broke back to force a tiebreak. It didn’t go their way and they were then broken in the fifth game of the deciding set, going down to a disappointing 6-4, 7-6, 6-4 defeat.
The 16 men’s teams competing for the FIP World Cup in November will be: Argentina, Spain, Portugal, Italy, United Arab Emirates, Brazil, France, Chile, Sweden, Qatar (host country), United States, Mexico, Germany, Netherlands, Paraguay and the winner of the Africa-Asia qualifier in October.
Check out all the results from the FIP World Cup European qualifier
