FIP European Padel Championships, Phillips and Tordoff: “In Great Britain, courts are popping up everywhere and top coaches are arriving…”

The kingdom of football is now also one of the most dynamic for the growth of padel, with a 600% increase in courts from 2020 to 2023, according to data from the FIP Research & Data Analysis Department. Great Britain is emerging among the new entrants in the discipline, and on the courts at FIP European Padel Champonships, it is showing that the future will be full of satisfaction. “It’s growing massively and it’s still a relatively young sport”, explains Lisa Phillips, who was part of a fiercely contested “tie” lost against the Netherlands on Tuesday. “From a professional and competition standpoint, it needs a few more years of experience. In the meantime, indoor courts are popping up everywhere, and many top-level coaches are moving there to teach the sport. There’s still so much we can do”. Lisa knows what she’s talking about since her passion for padel was born in Spain. “I was living there to learn Spanish, then I started attending a gym where they also had padel courts, and I fell in love. When I returned home, I continued playing.”

Abigail Tordoff’s story, one of the group’s veterans, began during the lockdown in 2020. “There wasn’t much to do, but by playing, I realized that I missed competitions”, explains Abigail, a former professional tennis player. “I realized that I really liked padel and that I wanted to play it more seriously”. Both Abigail and Lisa have the same role models: “Bea González, then Alejandra Salazar”. As for the European Championships, they both bet on Spain, both in the men’s and women’s categories, but with different podiums: “For the women, we say France and Portugal, for the men, Italy, and then we want Great Britain”.