Padel Success

Padel Club Championships 2024

Saturday 28th September saw the annual Padel Club Championships Finals take place. The rare treat of sunshine made the day’s play and large spectating crowd all the more enjoyable. The finals, expanding from four to six finals, meant the packed day provided endless entertainment with closely fought matches accompanied by pizza and Pimms. Now in our fourth year of the Padel Club Championships, the standard of play on show has increased and this year the level once again raised the bar with the results below:

Open
Bojan Jelovac and Jonny Binding beat Ed Savitt and Chris Salisbury
6-1, 6-7(8), 7-5

Women’s Open
Amy Cairns and Laura Deigman beat Daisy Maclean and Katy Preston
6-3, 6-3

Mixed Open
Laura Deigman and Bojan Jelovac beat Amy Cairns and Jonny Binding
6-2, 6-2

Over 60’s Open
Earl Knudsen and John Cumming beat Mike Todd and John Wixley
6-2, 6-0

Women’s 45s Open
Sandra Drum and Sara Levy beat Rachel Gilman and Sheila Finegan
6-3, 7-5

Over 45s Open
Craig de Silva and Jorge Alcover beat Nick Yates and Fred Warneryd
4-6, 6-3, 10-5

Women’s National First Team

In 2023 the Women’s Team finished runners-up in the National Finals, winning two match against Esher and East Glous Club but losing out to winners Harbour Club ‘A’.

LTA – Tennis for Britain – LTA Padel National League 2023 – National Finals – Team: The Roehampton Club (13) – General

A great effort by the women, well done all.

Squad: Katy Preston (Capt), Steph Cornish, Steph Williams, Amy Cairns, Laura Deigman, Daisy Maclean.

Jack and Bojan then played the other pair. They started very slowly with the opposing pair playing some excellent Padel. They lost the first set 6-2 but then fought hard and playing incredibly well and took the second set 6-0. An amazing contrast in set scores.

Another tiebreak to decide their tie. The first point was epic with all players playing some amazing shots but Roehampton Club lost that point, and remained behind through the tie-break, narrowly losing it.

The fate of the entire tournament would then come down to a shootout Championship tiebreak with one player from each pair playing in it. Craig and Jack would play together in this. Due to the injury of one of the Huddersfield players, their combination for this shootout meant one of their players was playing on their unnatural side.

Congratulations Laura Deigman

In December 2022 Roehampton Club Member, Laura Deigman, won a Grade 1 Padel event.

Laura and her partner, Aimee Gibson, were playing in Stratford with numerous top female Padel players in the country included in the draw.

Report;

‘It was a great weekend. The first time my partner and I had competed in a grade 1 event (we had played two Grade 3s leading up to it).

In our first round we came up against 2 strong ex tennis players whom we used to compete against as youngsters. Coming through a very fast paced game with a 6-2 7-5 win.

In the quarter final we faced the number 2 seeds from Spain and Greece. This game was a slightly more convincing win with a score 6-0 6-0.

Up next were 2 GB players Lila Simpson and Catherine Rose. Knowing them well from training we had some clear tactics going in and after a long battle we came out on top 10-6 in the third set tie break.

In the final we faced Abigail Tordoff and Lisa Phillips who have been dominating the LTA tour for the last year. Having beaten Tia Norton in the semi final we knew it would be a tough match but we were confident we had the game to win. After another tough battle we took the win 2-6 6-2 6-3.

It was a great event overall and really positive to see the women’s draw so full. I am looking forward to competing more and hopefully getting more of the Roehampton Club ladies involved too.’

Fred Warneryd, playing with fellow Member, Tim Webb, then completed the weekend double by winning the O50s tournament. A round robin format saw Fred and Tim win all four of their matches and without dropping a set.

These results see Craig go to number one in the O40s national rankings, Fred number three and Nick Yates number nine all in the O40s category.

Fred is now national number one in the O50s and Tim Webb is ranked six in the O50s.

This is an amazing achievement and congratulations to all those mentioned.

Progressing with 3 wins from 3 in the group stage, next came local rivals Rocks Lane in the semi finals. A good 2-0 win in two tight matches over the all-Spanish team saw Roehampton Club make the final at their first attempt in the competition. The final line up would see them up against reigning champs National Tennis Centre (NTC).

After initially sharing the first two matches, sadly they lost out in a very tense championship tie break decider 13-11 against the current number one ranked player in the UK, Jorge Martinez and his partner Alfonso Patacho.

Chris Salisbury;

‘Overall it was a great weekend with most of the top ranked players in the country competing. It’s always exciting to play a team event and represent your Club with such a strong group of players. Of course it’s really disappointing to be so close and miss out but it makes us more determined to get the win next year. Thank you for all that came to support, it made for a great atmosphere all weekend.’

England Vets in a Six Nations Padel Masters

In September 2022 Tim Webb and Nick Yates represented England Vets in a Six Nations Padel Masters Tournament in Helsinki.

The other five competing nations were Germany, Switzerland, Estonia, Ireland, and the hosts Finland.

Each country played each other in a round-robin format. Matches consisted of three rubbers and each pairing must have a combined age of 100!

The standard was very high, and England managed to finish fourth. Finland won the event (the host nation often does!) ahead of Estonia and Switzerland. England finished above Germany and Ireland (whom they beat 3-0!).

It was a fun weekend – the tournament was played in a wonderful spirit and, incredibly, there wasn’t a single injury!