Amidst hot and humid conditions at the the Dubai Tennis Stadium - the scene of the ATP and WTA 500 tennis tournaments – the British team produced a strong account of themselves over three days of group stage competition and against three of the leading padel nations worldwide.

Despite three losses over three days, the context in which Great Britain competed – surpassing expectations to reach the 17-nation world cup of padel – is a signal of the continued progress of the British padel team.

Great Britain play again tomorrow in the first playoff match as they seek to secure their final position for the Championships. The team will then play further matches on Friday and Saturday before the tournament concludes and their final position out of the 17 nations will be known.

Live stream all of Great Britain's matches here

Ultimately, it was the world’s number one nation, Spain, who confirmed Great Britain’s fate in a 3pm match session Court 2 at the Aviation Club which resulted in a 3-0 triumph for the Spaniards. 

Yesterday, Great Britain put in a strong performance on Centre in their second consecutive evening session tie. With Uruguay’s Martin Araujo and Diego Ramos beating Britain’s Richard Brooks and Louie Harris in straight sets 6-3, 6-4, it was the second match that proved a case of ‘what if’, as Team GB’s Sandy Farquharson and Nikhil Mohindra ran Uruguay’s Juan Bautista Moratorio and Higor Ennslin close, in two tight sets. In the final match of the evening, British No.1 Christian Medina Murphy and partner Sam Jones claimed the team’s first victory of the tournament, comprehensively defeating Uruguay’s top pairing of Valentin Piastri and Juan Ignacio Artia 6-1, 6-1.

On opening night, which fell on Halloween, Britain put in a performance worthy of more under the lights of the Aviation Club, losing out to Portugal by 3-0.  

“I am proud of the way the team has conducted themselves here in Dubai, by putting in three excellent shifts against three of the world’s best teams," said Great Britain men's captain, John Leach.

"There’s no getting away from the fact that we were drawn in arguably the toughest group, however for our players to have gone out on court over three consecutive days and particularly taken Uruguay so close yesterday is testament to the effort they have put in this year. What’s been apparent this week is just what a close unit the team is, and there’s no replacement for that in a team competition like this."

"We played some really good padel over the last three days that showed we are close to that level, but unfortunately couldn’t quite capitalize on some of the matches," said British team member, Sandy Farquharson.

"It gives us plenty to work for and focus on for future Championships. We are now looking forward to the remainder of the tournament, to secure our placement.”