Padel’s first ever British champions will be crowned at the upcoming LTA Padel National Championships which the governing body promises will be “a fantastic spectacle.”
Rocket Padel in Bristol will host the inaugural event from 4-7 December which will feature men’s and women’s Open categories, U18 draws for girls and boys, plus 50+ and 60+ competitions for both men and women.
Entries close on 21 November and players, who must have a British passport, can enter here. There is a record domestic prize pool of £10,000 and it will be the equivalent of an LTA Padel British Tour Grade 1 event.
All of the leading GB players are expected to enter, including current respective GB no.1s Christian Medina Murphy and Aimee Gibson.
The LTA are staging the tournament themselves, as opposed to relying on third parties who organise other tournaments on the LTA Padel British Tour on the governing body’s behalf.
“We’re all really excited,” LTA Padel Manager Steve Yeardley told The Padel Paper. “This is an opportunity for the LTA to put on a great show in-house and for players to become the first ever British champions.
“Rather than being a case of responding to demand, this competition is a result of us looking in the mirror. The desire came from the inside. We want to build something we’re proud of.
“We feel we’ve had a really good year. We’ve had four FIPs, nine Grade 1s, 15 Grade 2s, and we’ve got two players in the top 100. Now is a good time to build on that momentum. We want to go further and faster, and the sport is demanding that we do that.”
Rocket Padel Bristol (which is still the UK’s largest padel club with 14 courts) will feature some surprise fun events for players and spectators. The event will be streamed live on Padel TV and the well-known Emily Kilner will be on MC duties.
“We want players to enter, people to come along and watch and everyone to have a fantastic experience — then we’ll learn from it,” added Yeardley.
“This won’t be the finished article, it will be just the start. We’ll listen to the feedback from this first event and then in the following years we’ll think about how to evolve it, whether that be more junior and seniors categories, the time of year or anything else.”
At the time of writing (4.30pm on Monday 10 November) just over 100 players have registered for the LTA National Padel Championships out of a maximum capacity of 208 across all draws.
