Welcome to the latest in our series profiling Britain’s pioneering padelistas. If you missed them, take a look back at parts one, two and three – then peruse our latest selections below, which include three women accelerating our sport’s growth.
Libby Fletcher – GB women’s, seniors and junior coach
Former WTA Tour tennis coach Libby (pictured above, right) was instrumental in opening Middlesbrough Padel Club way ahead of the curve of Britain’s padel boom. Since then, she has ascended the LTA hierarchy to become GB’s first female national padel coach.
She is tasked with leading the GB women’s team at this summer’s European Championships in Cagliari and qualifying for the World Championships in Doha in October. Since taking on the role last year, Libby has professionalised the national team set-up, developing strength and conditioning and physio support, personal player development plans, tournament planning and regular training camps.
As well as coaching (and playing for) the women’s national seniors team, Libby is now also leading the Under-18s group within the LTA’s new youth programme. She has a very wide and demanding brief, but this hard-working and highly-regarded pioneer is more than capable of making a success of all her roles.
Sally Fisher – GB women’s seniors manager
Sotogrande-based but Yorkshire-bred, Fisher has played a monumental role in growing the GB senior padel community. In 2018, Sally played in the first ever FIP Seniors World Championships; fast forward to June 2023, and the LTA decided not to send a women’s team as it was thought they were not good enough to compete at that level.
This ignited a fire within Sally, who built and trained a GB women’s senior team which finished eighth in the world in March 2022, guaranteeing qualification for the next World Championships. Building on this, Sally and her team-mates created a year-long programme of GB trial events. That laid the foundation for the LTA to take the lead on FIP Seniors events in early 2024.
Earlier this year, FIP announced that there would be only three age categories for women at the Seniors World Championships, but five for the men. In the space of 72 hours, Sally led a request to make the women’s competition of equal size and offer women equal opportunity to compete. Within a couple of days, FIP aceeded.
Sebastian Gordon – co-founder, Rocket Padel
Sebastian Gordon has brought Scandinavian brand Rocket Padel to the UK, building the UK’s biggest club in Bristol and recently opening London’s biggest venue in Ilford.
Rocket Padel Bristol is thriving as a venue for big competitions, corporate events and community sessions (led by the effervescent Roxy Keshavarz). Both Rocket Padel sites pair outstanding padel facilities with cafés, bars, pro shops, spectator areas and court-side workstations.
Gordon and co have confirmed plans to build a four-court centre at Battersea Power Station. This comes after the successful pop-up underneath its iconic towers in the summer 2023, which saw scores of locals and celebrities try the sport. Rocket Padel has played a big part in padel’s commercial lift-off in the last year.
Nikhil Mohindra – GB player
Affable and ambitious GB player Nikhil Mohindra has represented his country at the World Padel Championships and will do so again at this summer’s European Championships in Italy.
But Nikhil’s off-court career is just as noteworthy. He was recently announced as the first Ambassador for Alan Healy’s Padel India to help raise awareness of the sport across the cricket-mad nation.
Joining Jonathan Rowland as partner at newly-founded R3 Sport is a sure sign of the 23-year-old’s emerging status as a credible businessman, as well as high-class athlete, within the sport.
Emma Kimber – editor, the Bandeja
The Padel Paper gladly casts aside any competitive bias to hail the work of renowned newspaper and magazine editor and padel enthusiast Emma, who has become a key advocate for grassroots padel through her passion project, The Bandeja.
The Bandeja has attracted an online and print readership of thousands thanks to Emma’s keen eye for newsworthy and exciting padel stories. She has built up a loyal following across the UK and beyond, and is one of the most important voices in British padel.
