Euro Padel Cup, team selections & the professional era with GB men's padel captain Sandy Farquharson
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Co-captain Sandy Farquharson says Great Britain's men's line-up for the upcoming FIP Euro Padel Cup marks a shift towards a "more professional era" for the national team.
The FIP Euro Padel Cup, which takes place in Madrid from 7-13 July, is a rebranded and revamped version of the European Championships. This year, it takes place in three phases, with phases one and two in the Spanish capital city and a final phase at an as-yet unannounced date and venue later in the year, when the top four ranked nations (Spain, Italy, France and Portugal) enter the fold.
As a result of reaching the quarter-finals at last year's Euros in Sardinia, Great Britain's men are ranked seventh for the FIP Euro Padel Cup. They will enter in phase two, beginning on 11 July, in which they will be one of the four top-ranked nations along with Netherlands, Sweden and Germany. The four respective group winners will progress to the final phase (known as the Final 8).
GB's eight-man squad for the event features four established pro players — Christian Medina Murphy, Sam Jones, Louie Harris and Nikhil Mohindra — and two debutants who both train full-time overseas in Jamie Lobo and Alex Loughlan.
Farquharson, who will co-captain the men's team alongside John Leach, says these team selections reflect a move into a new era.
"We've had very few changes to the squad for the last seven or eight years and, apart from our third-place finish in Rome in 2019, I don't feel we've got the results we could have done," said Farquharson.
"Our feeling this year is that the sport has to become more professional. We want to mirror other countries' approaches. So our priorities in selection were, who's having professional training? Who is taking their strength and conditioning seriously? Who is competing in FIP events? Who knows how to compete under pressure?
"In seven or eight years, we've gone from a group of people who play the sport to now being considered a professional sport. We should be giving it that respect. That was the idea when looking at selections."
Glaswegian Loughlan is relatively new to padel but lives in Copenhagen where he trains with Mark Møller as well as hopping regularly to Helsingborg to work with coach Andreas Johansson. He plays and trains with FIP-ranked players Oscar Sebber, Adam Axelsson, Daniel Windahl and Simon Vazquez on a daily basis.
Fellow debutant, 19-year-old Lobo, is based in Spain where he trains full-time. He can play on both sides of the court. "He's someone that takes their physical training and competition very seriously," commented Farquharson. "We can put him in different combinations and he will bring out the best in his partner."
Alfonso Patacho keeps his place and there's a first call-up to the national team for Sandy's brother Tom Farquharson. "I'm certainly not biased towards him — in fact, I'm probably more harsh on him as my brother!" laughs the elder sibling.
"Very few people are as professional on or off court as he is. I've coached him for many years in tennis and in padel. He won junior Wimbledon doubles, was top 400 in the ATP rankings and has a wealth of pressure match experience, firstly in tennis now in padel."
Some members of the squad will head to the Netherlands for a pre-Euros training camp with the Dutch team and will play in the FIP Silver event in Utrecht (24-29 June). They will then head to Madrid three days before phase two begins to acclimatise to what will be hot, fast indoor conditions.
Then, on the eve of FIP Euro Padel Cup phase two, will be the all-important draw. Great Britain are among the top seeds in this segment of the competition and the nation they ideally want to avoid in the group stage is Belgium.
"They're the ones to watch out for this year," says Farquharson. "Were we to get Belgium, it would be a very tough match, but they're not unbeatable. We can't control the draw. Yes it is a big moment, but we've got to play our best padel regardless."
