Padel hits the headlines
Media coverage of padel is ramping up, a sure sign that it is embedding itself into our national sporting culture.
The Times started 2023 off well with a feature (Playing padel yet? The sportiest celebs are), looking at famous names hooked on padel, discussing private courts and talking to a selection of people including the Quarry family who are fortunate enough to have a court in the garden of their London home.
- Our favourite piece from The Times so far has come from senior sports writer Matt Dickinson. For I’ve seen the future of tennis for the masses — it’s called padel Matt spoke to Andy Murray, Chris Warren from Rocks Lane in Chiswick and GB national team coach John Leach.
- Not to be left out, Peta Bee covered padel for The Times’ Body + Soul section (Anyone for padel? The racket sport that’s rapidly becoming a big hit) and Dominic Walsh took a look at the business side of the game (Fresh new version of tennis proves a smash), speaking to people including Padel4all founder Christopher Wilkinson and its chairman Kevin McCollum plus Neil Morgan, co-founder of JetPadel, in Thame.
- Game4Padel’s pop-up court in Westfields London generated huge media interest from national TV to shopping centre magazines and mainstream media in between. A favourite spin-off from the event is model Laura Bailey’s article in Vogue. She started playing at the Padel Social Club’s pop-up courts at Babington House over the summer and practised for her appearance at Westfields by popping down to Rocks Lane. Our favourite line in Laura’s article? “There’s a kind of innocence to padel, a throwback to a childhood spent hitting balls against brick and concrete in carparks and back gardens.” We get that. GB No 1 Tia Norton also gets a mention in the article – read it here
Tia, together with young padel talent Oliver Grantham, also featured in a BBC news segment about the Westfields Padel Festival, sharing the feature with none other than Andy Murray. Watch here
The Mail on Sunday pulled together ‘everything you need to know about padel, GQ magazine spent time at Stratford Padel Club and spoke with Kristian Hunter from the Padel Social Club and ITV popped down to Padel4all’s new centre in Lockleaze, Bristol for its World’s fastest growing sport known as padel arrives in Bristol
- And The Guardian broke the story to the world outside padel about the International Tennis Federation’s move to mount what it described as a ‘hostile takeover’ of the sport: Padel and tennis at war over ‘hostile’ takeover
- Heading into the regions, the Derby Evening Telegraph visited the city’s 11-court We Are Padel centre: Look inside Derby’s first padel tennis centre that’s taken over Power-league
