GB No.3 Louie Harris admitted he was “still buzzing” after “living a movie star lifestyle” in Miami as part of the San Diego Stingrays team at the 2024 Pro Padel League.
Cardiff-born Louie lined up alongside the charismatic legend Miguel Lamperti, former world No.2 Maxi Sanchez and former world No.1 Lucia Sainz, plus USA’s rising star Brittany Dubins, in the Stringrays line-up in the first two stages of this year’s PPL at the sun-kissed Ultra Club.
The PPL – the only professional padel league in the world to feature team-based competition in a city-based, franchise format – is in its second season. Last year, the event gained plenty of traction across the pond with GB No.1 Tia Norton lifting the inaugural trophy with champions Las Vegas Smash.
This year, the competition has extended out to four Events (this month’s two in Miami and two in Los Angeles in August), leading to a PPL Cup Final in New York in November.
Although Louie’s Stingrays team missed out on the semi-finals in Event 1 and 2, for the 21-year-old the experience was invaluable in enriching his game, learning from legends and expanding his horizons.
Louie tells The Padel Paper: “I learned so much from the guys in training, how they prepare for matches, sitting down beforehand and talking about their tactical approach and how they communicate during the match. A big take-away for me was how calm they were before the match. There was no stress and a lot of smiles.
“I saw how they varied their tactical approach depending on the type of players they were coming up against. We faced a lot of different styles and they talked a lot about how they were going to structure the match beforehand, whereas a lot of times when I play we have those discussions during the match and adapt as we go along.”
Travelling as a reserve player, Louie knew his court time in Miami would be limited. He was delighted therefore to play alongside Marta Morga, winning 6-2 in a mixed doubles tie in a group match against Toronto Polar Bears in Event 1. “I was really happy to get a chance to play at least once and it was cool to get a win,” he says.
The trip was Louie’s first ever visit to America and it’s fair to say he took to the Miami lifestyle very quickly, enjoying a spot of jet skiing and taking in a Miami Heat NBA game.
“The lifestyle was crazy!” he says. “It was exactly what it looks like in the movies. We were really fortunate that the team treated us to a lot of cool things. The lifestyle in Miami is definitely unmatched. It was one of the craziest places I’ve been. What a fantastic experience. It was like a little escape from reality.”
For Louie, ‘reality’ now means a return to the FIP tour, the odd trip home for LTA Padel Tour events and then the European Championships in Sardinia, Italy in July.
Ryan Redondo, CEO of the San Diego Stringrays, was impressed with what the world No.488 brought to the team. He said: “He has tremendous poise and a load of talent. He represented the Stingrays versus Toronto and really dominated the court.
“Like Brittany [Dubins] we are very eager to be a catalyst for the sport in America and the UK. We see this opportunity to be around the best players in the world in an intimate way as key to both American and UK players to learn and distribute in their own careers.
“We are very proud of our team. The camaraderie and day-to-day competitiveness that the Stingrays showed is all we could have asked for. We got to see a star being born in Brittany Dubins and we got to add Louie Harris to the squad which was a fantastic intro to the PPL and the top talent in the world.
“This league is tough and we barely missed the semi-finals which is a tough pill to swallow, but it just shows that we need to peak in the end and be ready to get over the finish line in some of the matches that we fell just short. I am so excited and I know our players are hungry to prove themselves come August.”
