2022 may have been the breakthrough year for Catherine Rose but the GB international is determined to make 2023 her year to remember.
Within the space of six months the 23-year-old had established herself as a key part of the Harbour Club Chelsea Ladies team who went on to win the LTA National Club League Championship following an epic triumph over Tennis World Middlesbrough in a dramatic set super tie-break 11-9 in which she played a pivotal role, partnering former Wimbledon tennis player Abi Tordoff.
But there was even better to come when Rose was selected for the Great Britain team to take part in the European World Championship Qualifiers at We Are Padel Derby in October, in the process making her first international appearance as Alvaro Guerrero’s team came up just short in their bid to qualify for the finals in Dubai.
Add to that a string of appearances in the later stages of various LTA National Tour events, and it is not hard to see why Rose was fast-tracked by Guerrero and his No.2 Max Lutostanski, who had also been instrumental in her selection for Harbour Club Chelsea, into the national set up.
But now Rose is determined to make sure that 2023 will cement her place in the GB squad and prove that she is no ‘one-hit wonder’ and she said: “The World Cup qualifiers were a fantastic experience and that was my first involvement with Team GB and I loved it. I didn’t get much match time but I played against Austria and partnered Libby Fletcher from Middlesbrough and with that being my first international I will always remember it.
“We played third couple and our match was cut short at 6-0, 3-0 to us when one of the Austrian girls got injured, so that was a bit frustrating as I just wanted more, I must admit it was such a good experience that I came back from Derby with a post weekend case of the blues.
“I felt like I learned so much from being at Derby and being surrounded by such good players. I was just really grateful to be there and really I didn’t expect to play too much but it was just nice to have been asked and get that first cap so to speak.
“The GB set-up is so open and there are so many good up-and-coming girls that it is going to be tough to stay in there. For sure just because I made the team once doesn’t mean I will make the next squad.
“So I am just continuing to work as hard as I can and I am very lucky in that my boyfriend Jack Carpenter is a qualified Padel MBA coach and we train a lot together which is really helpful in terms of taking my game to the next level.
“The LTA Calendar for next year has just come out and there are a lot of tournaments from February on and at moment the plan is to get the best training block in I can and make sure I am good to go when the competitive set-up gets going in 2023.
“But I loved being involved in the GB set up and I just want more of that in the New Year.”
Yet the modest Rose admitted there are key areas of her game she is having to work on to ensure that she can continue to develop at the elite level: “The walls are the most unnatural thing for a tennis player, which is my background, and probably the key area of improvement I need to make and I also need to be able to vary my smashes.
“I have quite a good overhead in tennis but learning the Bandeja and the Vibora and getting that variation is definitely an area I need to work on.”
As Rose recalled it was the creation of the Harbour Club Chelsea Ladies Team that proved the key in her meteoric rise from rookie to full international in eight months: “We formed the team in April and that coincided with me playing that bit more regularly as I met so many more girls who were just like me and very keen to play padel and just get on court.
“I had played tennis since I was 4 and stopped at 16 to play rugby for a bit and I went to Uni playing rugby but when I came back I started playing tennis again, then I discovered padel and it has very much taken over.
“Max Lutostanski was the guy who created the Chelsea Harbour set-up and it was very generous of them to give us memberships and that has been a key part in our development as we have been able to play so much more because of that.
“Especially in the winter when there are not many indoor courts around that has made a huge difference but Max has been instrumental in all of that, really he has been great. He is also such a great organiser and sets up practise sessions and is just super-helpful.
“Probably if I hadn’t been involved in the Chelsea Harbour set-up I wouldn’t have had a look in of being called up for Team GB.”
Yet it was her part in that unforgettable triumph over Tennis World Middlesbrough alongside team mates Abi Tordoff, Laura Robson, Iva Saric, and Amanda Elliott that was to provide the year’s other highlight.
After dispatching Rocks Lane and East Gloucester 4-0 in the group stages it all came down to that dramatic denouement against the Teesside team as Rose recalled: “We were in the finals with Middlesbrough, East Gloucester and Rocks Lane and I played against Middlesbrough when my partner Iva Saric we and I won fairly convincingly.
“Then Abi and Laura lost to Claire Smith and Libby Fletcher and so it all went down the match tie-break.
“For that I partnered Abi against Claire Smith and Jo Ward, we won the champions tie break in the decider, and it was probably the most dramatic moment of my padel career so far and one I won’t forget in a hurry.
“Recently at Stratford I partnered Lila Simpson and we lost to Amy Gibson and Laura Damon in the semi-finals who ended up going on to win it but we had a very tight match with them and we lost 7-6, 5-7 and then 10-6 in the tie-break and that was a tough one to take.
“But they are a new pair and although they hadn’t played in many of the tournaments it was great to see more girls coming in and playing well and it was nice to play against different opposition.
“I think it’s really important that we have more and more girls coming into the padel scene in the UK and hopefully it will just keep growing.”
Rose also found time to fit a Padel MBA CPC qualification into her year and had warm words of praise for national coach Alvaro Guerrero: “Alvaro has been very helpful with my coaching, he knew I was a rookie but he showed great faith in taking me to Derby, despite how new I was to it all and I am forever grateful to him for all that and the tips he has given me in coaching terms.
“I also did a Padel MBA coaching course at Huddersfield and having five days with the coaches who ran it was just super beneficial for me. They are from Spain and they have been playing padel for years and are just super knowledgeable and that has given my game a real boost and certainly improving my understanding of padel.”
With another highly promising young talent waiting in the wings, 2023 is sure to be an even bigger year for British padel on the world stage.
