British padel in 2025: New milestones, team successes & empowering communities to play
• 6 minutes read
2025 has been a huge year for British padel with more people playing the sport than ever before.
At a grassroots level, we’ve seen participation levels at record-highs, while at the top end of the game, British players have reached new milestones throughout the season.
We breakdown eight of our biggest highlights and moments from the year in British padel:
Padel courts & players on the rise
Back in July, we announced that Britain had reached 1000 padel courts across 325 venues nationwide – a landmark moment in the padel’s growth in this country.
Since the LTA took governance of the sport in 2019, the number of courts has grown from 69 to over 1000 – with the total courts now expected to be even higher.
Figures earlier in 2025 also found that there are over 400,000 padel players in Great Britain as well.
As of February 2025, the LTA and LTA Tennis Foundation has invested over £6 million in padel, which alongside the incredible work of the British padel community, has helped transform the sport across Great Britain.
Keep an eye out for the latest research and figures in 2026, where we expect to see more record-breaking numbers across padel participation in Britain.
National team success on the world stage
2025 has been a fantastic year for the Great Britain padel teams competing against the best nations in Europe and across the world.
The British women’s and men’s teams put in stunning performances at this year’s FIP Euro Padel Cup to come through the qualifying stages and book their place in the Final 8 in Cadiz.
Both teams showed their impressive progress against Europe’s elite – finishing third in their respective groups with victories in their final matches. The women’s team sealed Britain’s first Final 8 win with a 2-1 victory over Germany, before the men’s team followed suit in defeating Sweden 2-1.
At the FIP Senior Euro Padel Cup, Britain’s women’s team finished the week in eighth place, losing out to Denmark 3-2 in their final match. Meanwhile, the men’s side claimed 11th position after losing to Norway in the 10th/11th place play-off.
This year, we also funded and supported the Great Britain junior teams to compete in the FIP Junior World Cup in Costa Daurada. It was a great learning experience for the girls’ and boys’ sides who both narrowly missed out on qualifying for the main draw.
Brits star in the professional game
This year has been a strong season for the British players competing across the world on the professional tours.
British No.1 Aimee Gibson has been one of the standout stars of 2025, not only breaking into the top 100 – becoming the first British player to do so – but also picking up five Cupra FIP Tour titles. This included a hat-trick of trophies to finish the season.
Catherine Rose also reached the top 100 in September after winning two FIP Silver events with Gibson in Australia this year and has since gone on to reach the semi-finals or better at nine different events.
Tia Norton enjoyed a solid end to her 2025 campaign with five semi-finals and a final in her last seven FIP events. The world No.130 played 23 FIP events this season.
Lisa Phillips and Abigail Tordoff also won their first FIP Tour title this year at the FIP Bronze Kuala Lumpur.
On the men’s side, British No.1 Christian Medina Murphy won his fourth career FIP Tour title at the FIP Bronze Hong Kong II alongside Spanish partner Alberto Garcia Jimenez.
This season Medina Murphy also made his breakthrough on the Premier Padel circuit – reaching the quarter-finals in Cancun, the best result by a British padel player ever.
There is a new face at British No.2 to finish this season as well, with Alex Loughlan being one of the high risers from 2025. Loughlan reached his first FIP final at the FIP Bronze Denmark and is ranked just outside of the top 300.
Celebrity events & taking padel into the community
At the start of the year, we announced a significant partnership with the UK’s leading Pro-Celebrity padel series, the Pro-Am Padel Tour, to increase accessibility and drive youth engagement in the sport.
Joining as the Official Strategic Partner, we organised and hosted whole-day community-led sessions as part of the new look tour for 2025, which visited four major cities across the UK.
The LTA Community Day provided free padel sessions for community groups, schools, adaptive athletes, and local charities, creating an inclusive opportunity for new audiences to experience the sport.
We’ve introduced ‘over a thousand’ people to padel from under-served backgrounds focusing on women, children, global majority and low socio-economic backgrounds, and disability.
The impact has gone much further than just a one off session. At Rocket Padel in Beckton for example, all four primary schools are now regularly engaged in padel and have committed to completing LTA Youth Schools teacher training.
All Out Padel and ‘Local Champion’, who attended the Pro-Am community days, are now with Rocket Padel for a regular LGBTQ+ inclusive social session in East London.
Rocket Padel also offered junior players two free sessions on their programme and have engaged with Access Sport regarding regular junior Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) padel sessions.
The Pro-Am Padel Tour itself saw a variety of well-known celebrities from the world of sports and entertainment compete, including Traitors star and former England Rugby player Joe Marler, former England Footballers Dion Dublin, Joleon Lescott and Phil Jones, former Lioness Steph Houghton, radio presenter Chris Stark, comedian, TV presenter and LTA padel ambassador Jason Manford, and many more.
Enhancing the domestic competitions calendar
2025 saw Great Britain’s biggest at Performance Competitions Calendar to date – providing enhanced opportunities for British players at each age and stage of the performance player pathway.
This included international events on the FIP Tour, domestic competitions as part of the LTA British Padel Tour, and more opportunities for junior players on the FIP Promises Tour.
Here’s a breakdown of the number of events hosted in Great Britain this year:
- Two FIP Silver
- Two FIP Bronze
- One LTA Padel National Championships
- Nine LTA British Padel Tour – Grade 1
- 15 LTA British Padel Tour – Grade 2
- Three FIP Promises
In more recreational competitions as well, we saw the highest number of entries into the LTA Padel National League this year. 53 venues, 139 teams and 695 players competed in this year’s competitions – this has more than doubled in each category since launching in 2021 (25 teams, 38 venues and 201 players).
Learn more about how Stratford Padel Club hosted the joint biggest international padel tournament in Britain this year – read here.
The inaugural LTA Padel National Championships
December saw Great Britain’s first LTA Padel National Championships, taking place at Rocket Padel Bristol.
Bringing together the nation’s leading junior, open, and senior athletes, the event marked a major milestone for British padel. Competitors battled for national titles, a £10,000 total prize fund, and valuable LTA ranking points, in an event that showcased the very best of the sport in Britain.
In the Open competitions, British No.1 and No.2 Gibson and Rose proved the dominant force, taking home the title in the women’s event.
Meanwhile, Loughlan teamed up with GB teammate Louie Harris to become the first-ever men’s national champions.
Read more about the 2025 LTA Padel National Championships
Inspiring stories in British padel
The growth of padel wouldn’t be possible without the work of many incredible people behind-the-scenes at clubs and venues across the country.
This year, we’ve been lucky enough to speak to and share the stories of many amazing people and venues who are inspiring more players to pick up a racket.
Padel Maidenhead is paving the way for inclusion and accessibility in the sport with specially designed facilities with wheelchair users in mind.
SmashPadel Bicester – previously named LTA Oxfordshire Club of the Year 2024 - has developed a thriving junior programme for players of all ages and abilities to enjoy the sport and also take their skills to the next level through their coaching pathway.
Connect Padel UK has also partnered with the LTA to deliver 1000 hours of free court time for schools and charities in the Birmingham area – providing the community with greater access to padel.
GB star Victoria Nicholas and trainee coach Emma Powell have also set up a new Padel & Prams initiative, which gives new mums a safe space to make friends, exercise and discover padel.
Developing a performance pathway
Developing the performance pathway for players at different stages of the padel journey has been a priority in 2025.
Back in February, we announced the appointments of Libby Fletcher, National Performance Pathway Manager and Sandy Farquharson, National Performance Coach, to create a pathway and support framework for the development of British players.
Together, they are responsible for creating a pathway and support framework that identifies, develops, and supports players at every stage - ensuring they have the training, resources, and opportunities needed to reach their full potential.
We’re extending our network of national coaches, which is something we’ll be looking to enhance going into 2026.
Engaging external stakeholders
This year, we’ve been working hard to engage several external stakeholders in helping to grow padel and open up the sport to new audiences. Here’s a breakdown on just some of the activity we’ve done:
LTA Padel Advisory Group
Earlier this year the LTA Padel Advisory Group (PAG) appointed six key stakeholders from across the British padel community to help guide and support the next phase of the sport’s development.
National Operator Forums
We hosted a series of Padel Operator Forums, bringing together operators from across Great Britain, covering over 140 venues. Operators came together for an informative and collaborative sessions exploring topics including venue safeguarding, making padel venues safe places to play, Women & Girls' inclusion.
Media Day
In November, we welcomed members of the British media to the National Tennis Centre for a padel ‘show and tell’ day. It was the first time we’ve welcomed such a large group of national media to the NTC, to hear the LTA’s story about the British padel landscape, and its future direction.
UK Padel Convention
We also supported the inaugural UK Padel Convention. The event bought the British padel industry together to discuss the work already ongoing to grow the sport across the country.
