It’s time for the latest instalment in our much-discussed series – and this week we’ve gone for five industry big hitters who are well and truly ‘moving the needle’ four our wonderful sport.
(If you missed them, check our part one and part two!)
Chris Warren – Founder, Rocks Lane and Euro Padel League
Chris Warren is The Don of British padel. There can’t be many in the industry who don’t know him, but for the uninitiated, he is founder of the legendary Rocks Lane Club in Chiswick, west London – and more recently the Euro Padel League, which is nearing the end of its first season and has grand plans for its second.
With 24 courts across Chiswick and three other sites (and more in the planning stage), Rocks Lane is one of the UK’s largest and longest-running padel club brands. Chiswick has hosted FIP international and LTA national tournaments, Pro Ams and major corporate events.
Its community-first philosophy, with a focus on inclusion and developing juniors, is widely admired. Its environment has also spawned elite players such as Victoria Nicholas. Chris is the only ever winner of the LTA Outstanding Contribution to Padel Award.
The Yorkshire-born entrepreneur has represented GB in padel at over-45, 50 and 55 level, including two World Championships and one European Championships. Talking of Europe, season one of his European Padel League concept is set to conclude in spectacular fashion at Rocks Lane in July – and season two is going to take it to a whole new level. Stay tuned to The Padel Paper to find out more next week!
Michael Gradon – CEO, Game4Padel
Michael Gradon’s Game4Padel is the UK’s largest padel operator with 19 venues here and further clubs in Spain, Australia and New Zealand.
Game4Padel are constantly innovating with new concepts – Britain’s first padel courts in a residential development, in business parks, in multi-sport venues (like GolfIt! in Glasgow and GLL leisure centres) and, memorably, at Westfield Shopping Centre in London.
With padel still a novel concept in Britain, Michael understands the value of influencers to capture the public interest. Andy Murray, Virgil van Dijk, Jamie Vardy, Jonathan Edwards and Annabel Croft are all investors and their profile has helped generate local interest whenever Game4Padel open a new facility, as well as national interest in the sport generally. In an industry where there’s often a lot of hot air, Gradon lets others do the talking and just gets things done.
Nick Baker (pictured below) and Neil Percival – UK PADEL
We’ve permitted a joint entry from these co-founders of UK Padel, a company which not only operates a growing portfolio of padel clubs but holds top-notch competitions and sells equipment too.
County championships have existed in tennis for generations, but as the padel community waited impatiently for the LTA to get its county representatives together and organise a padel version, Nick and Neil decided to crack on with the job themselves. The result was the UK Padel County Championships, held in Bristol last November, which had over 170 participants from 21 counties taking part in men’s, women’s and mixed draws – making it the largest padel tournament ever held in the UK.
Its success prompted an expansion of the format into UK county age-group events. The inaugural UK Padel Over-50s County Championships in March was the UK’s biggest ever age group tournament – and there are over-40s and over-60s events in the offing.
UK Padel’s next venture is the first ever British Schools Championships. Nick and Neil are continually breaking new ground and we’re looking forward to whatever they come up with next.
John Leach – GB men’s Head Coach and Home of Padel owner
John was one of the earliest adopters and advocates for padel in the UK. He was GB captain at four major international championships between 2010-2018 and an ex-LTA Padel Tour No.1.
John is an LTA-qualified coach in both padel and tennis with a wealth of experience in sport science and website development. He built an online platform providing tennis and padel training retreats for the UK. He has even coached arguably one of Britain’s most iconic performers, Stormz! His Home of Padel (HOP) tournaments have become a staple of the British padel scene.
Jonathan Rowland, R3 Sport founder
Rowland has played padel throughout his career in finance since discovering the game in Argentina – but in September last year he decided to make it business as well as pleasure.
Along with GB player Nikhil Mohindra, Rowland founded talent management company R3 Sport. They have snapped up many of Britain’s top current and upcoming players including Christian Medina Murphy, Catherine Rose and Chris Salisbury. Rowland and Mohindra have also joined Sarah Horrocks and Frankie Langan in founding Padel Aid, which stages padel-based charity fundraising events.
Son of property tycoon and prominent Conservative Party donor David Rowland, Jonathan (pictured above, right) has raised capital from private investors and secured credit facilities worth several million pounds as he looks to corner the UK padel market, not just through player management and hosting tournaments, but also building clubs and acting as a distributor for leading brands.
