Padel exclusive
Padel in 2023 – events, players and predictions for the upcoming season
The 2023 padel season is now well and truly underway and excitement is building ahead of another year packed full of action on the court.
With the British Tour starting this week in Harrogate, we sat down with the LTA’s Head of Padel, Tom Murray, to chat all things about the pro game, the different competitions and players to look out for in 2023.
For those who don’t know, can you briefly explain the different padel tours?
There are five main tours to keep your eye on this year – each with their own stand out tournaments in the calendar.
Starting off here in Great Britain, we have the LTA Padel British Tour – the highest level of domestic competition that we have on offer. This is a circuit of tournaments, graded one to six, with Grade One events boasting the players at the top of the leaderboard.
On the international stage we then have the Cupra FIP Tour, which for reference is almost the equivalent to the ITF World Tennis Tour and run by the Federation International Padel, the global governing body for padel. This year we’re hosting more FIP Rise events in Britain than ever before, with at least four already scheduled in the calendar – starting at Rocks Lane in April.
At a similar level, we have the A1 Padel Tour. Predominantly played in South America at the moment, we’re going to see more and more of these events heading to Europe and the USA soon.
There’s also the World Padel Tour, which until recently was the dominant professional circuit, mainly taking place in Spain. This is where most of the pro stars, both men and women compete as there are a variety of tiers on offer.
Then we move up to Premier Padel (sanctioned by FIP), which is a new level of tournament with more prize money on offer for the players. Think of these like the Grand Slams in tennis – the top players battling it out for the biggest prizes in the game.
Players have different rankings for different tours, so more often than not, the best players will play on the World Padel Tour and the Premier events to improve their rankings.
What events should fans look out for this year?
As I say – the Premier Padel events are essentially your Grand Slams, so I’d definitely recommend keeping an eye on those. The first event is in Qatar from 26 February to 5 March, but there are also tournaments in Madrid, Milan and at Roland Garros in Paris this year.
On the World Padel Tour side, the Master tournaments are always a highlight. Throughout the summer there are three Master events in Spain between Marbella, Valladolid and Madrid, which attract the very best players in the world. Those at the top of the rankings at the end of the year as well get to compete in the Master Final from 14-17 December in Barcelona – definitely keep that in the diary!
There are more domestic and international events coming to Great Britain this year – how important is this for the growth of the game?
Having more international competitions in the UK for our top performing British players is incredibly important. This helps them gain valuable competition experience and supports them in building their international ranking and individual profiles, which will help inspire the next generation of British padel players as we begin to build our performance pathway and programmes.
For the sport as a whole, this is a great stage to raise the awareness and status of the sport as we continue to see its rapid growth across the country.
Who are the British players to watch out for this year?
Christian Medina Murphy is the standout from the men’s side, as he’s the highest ranked British padel player in the world. He’s been battling hard on the international stage recently and his results are continuing to improve. Last year he led our British team at the World Padel Championships through qualifiers and into the finals, as well as becoming one part of the first British team to win a match at an FIP Euro event. This year I think he has a chance of breaking into the top 100.
Similarly, British No.1 Tia Norton would be one to watch on the women’s side. Tia broke into our national team at just 12-years-old and now, at 19, sits just outside the top 100 in the world. Last year she won our first ever FIP Rise event in Britain – the London Padel Open – and with more events coming to the UK this year, I think there’s a great chance she’ll start climbing the rankings even further.
Can you give us one prediction for pro padel in 2023?
That’s a tough one. I think we should expect more international players to break into the top 100 and even the top 50 on both the World Padel Tour and FIP Tours this year. In the past we’ve seen the rankings dominated by Spanish and Argentinian player – as the real powerhouses of the sport – but as it continues to grow here, across Europe and the rest of the world, I think we can expect disruption in the future and I think that starts this year.