Padel London are making their next stop along the M25 this Saturday, as they will be hosting a two-session event at Epsom Lawn Tennis Club. David Segura is the organiser of this event and is hoping for a ‘great social occasion’.
The idea behind Padel London stemmed from when Segura saw the explosion of the padel in Spain and realised the potential it could have in the UK, particularly Greater London.
“We realised the knowledge we could bring from Spain; our catchphrase is that padel is a modern racquet sport, compared to the more traditional tennis, squash and badminton.”
“The company does three things, one is building padel courts. The second is the equipment, we bring the equipment that we know is of a good quality from Spain and the third thing is to promote the sport by running events like the one on Saturday.”
As mentioned, the event on Saturday will be split into two sessions. The first session which runs from 10am-3pm features improvers and lower intermediate players, the second runs from 3:30pm-9pm and features intermediate players.
Segura explains this in more detail, “We have got two types of event, silver or gold tournament. Silver is what will be taking place on Saturday, which is for improvers, lower-intermediate and intermediate.”
“We are going to start gold tournaments next year and they are for more intermediate and lower advanced. At the moment we are not targeting more professional players, but we plan to next year.”
The tournament itself is not your traditional format. It will consist of a group stage, which leads onto the knockout round. The twist is that instead of playing best of three sets, all the matches are timed.
“The matches are timed, so it is 25 minutes per match. We measure the performance of the teams in the group stage format, and this is a way to find out the level of each pair to arrange the knockout stages. For example, the number of matches won, the number of games won, and a number of other variables that we use to measure performance.”
“Based on the performance, we then have a ranking and then a traditional knockout draw with quarter-finals, semi-finals and then the final. The matches will still only be 25 minutes long.”
“This is because we want the players to be continuously playing and not have them just waiting around. We have worked out that every team will play for a minimum of two hours.”
Although not a professional tournament with prize money, there will be an incentive for the players. The winners of the tournament will receive professional Akkeron padel equipment, as well as some other gifts. However, even for those who are going more for the experience, they will be given a drink and some small gifts as a little souvenir for the day.
Segura and the Padel London team decided that the Epsom venue would be suitable for the tournament, because it has three padel courts which is their minimum requirement for a tournament.
It is clear that Padel London events are fast-paced and exciting, which is why Segura says they chose to hold the event over one day, instead of two, “The way that we want to run tournaments is that everyone gets a chance to play, and also having no gaps between rounds. We don’t want to do something over two days that could be completed in five hours. We want to make it as efficient and engaging as possible.”
Padel London are very passionate about growing padel in the UK, and their unique tournament format adds an exciting dynamic for new and more experienced padel players.
There are still places open for the improver and lower intermediate session, at £25 per person, you can enter either as an individual or a pair. So, if you are a padel player looking for some tournament experience, head to the Padel London website and book yourself in for this Saturday, at Epsom Lawn Tennis Club.
Keep an eye out for our tournament report this weekend.
