EXCLUSIVE By RJ Mitchell
TIA NORTON has admitted that her recent trip to Wimbledon as part of her reward for becoming the inaugural winner of the LTA’s Padel Award has provided her with a new inspiration – women’s World No.1 tennis player Iga Świątek.
The Pole made it into the top 50 of the WTA Rankings at just 18 and followed that up by winning her first Grand Slam at the French Open at 19. Now, at 21, she is a dominant world No.1.
Yet at the weekend Świątek was knocked out of Wimbledon at the third round stage by French veteran Alize Cornet in the biggest shock of The Championships in a defeat that saw her 37-match winning streak brought to a shuddering end.
The 18-year-old Norton has no doubt that win or lose Świątek is an inspiration to young sportspeople all around the world, saying: “Iga has done it at such a young age and she has shown that there is no reason why you can’t succeed as young person if you really apply yourself and have the ambitions to achieve things.
“Before I went to Wimbledon I did a bit of background research on Iga, and for sure knowing that she is No.1 at 21 at such a young age, and broke into the top 50 of the WTA rankings at 18 and winning her first Grand Slam at 19, Iga is definitely a huge inspiration not just to me but to many other young people.
“So after watching her in person at Wimbledon when I was there she is definitely someone who inspires me. She is very much in control and composed on court and you wouldn’t have guessed that she had such a big winning streak as some players would have talked that up.
“Unfortunately her winning run came to an end but she was very cool about it and took it all in her stride and set a tremendous example.”
Norton combines her time at the NTC Roehampton and her Spanish base in Barcelona under the guidance of coach Juan Alday and was announced as the first winner of the LTA’s padel award by CEO Scott Lloyd at a live-streamed awards ceremony presented last month by LTA President David Rawlinson and hosted by the LTA’s Head of Men’s Tennis, Leon Smith. All the prizewinners were invited to Wimbledon to receive their awards.
Despite her recent recognition, the GB international says she will keep her feet firmly on the ground: “There is expectation from people but I don’t think about it too much and I just try to focus on doing as well as I can. Of course, I have high expectations of myself but the expectations of other people are because they just want me to succeed and I take the positives from that.
“I didn’t know there was going to be a padel award this year so that when I won it was a big shock but I take huge satisfaction from being the first to win it and hopefully many more padel awards can come from the LTA.”
Padel was officially recognised as a form of tennis by the LTA in November 2020 and since then has continued to grow in the UK, with more than 170 courts already built and more being added to that number every day.
Norton, who hails from Leamington Spa, beat a host of talented British players to secure the award after first picking up a padel racket aged 12 and became the first British woman in history to compete in – and win – a World Padel Tour match in August last year.
Looking back at her trip to Wimbledon, she added: “The whole day was absolutely incredible, from the awards ceremony to the whole Wimbledon experience itself. It was just an honour to be amongst such incredible winners and runners up of all the different categories.
“To hear their incredible stories of how much dedication and work goes into tennis and padel all around the UK was amazing. I would like to thank the LTA for the opportunity to receive and win this award, and of course to all my sponsors who have supported me and made this possible and I’m very excited to see the next steps of padel in the UK.”
