Racquets Round Up
As we find ourselves in another lockdown, I find it very frustrating that we are not able to play the game we all love so much, given the physical and mental benefits of tennis. However, we must respect the rules and hope that, come the 3rd December, the courts will be full of action once again. The LTA tried extremely hard to turnaround this decision but unfortunately, it was not possible. Once restrictions are lifted, there will be a particular focus on revisiting the restrictions imposed for indoor tennis, assuming that the tiered restrictions are re-imposed and I am aware that the LTA coronavirus team will be campaigning for this again. In the meantime, we can all use this time to work on our fitness and hone our skills so we are prepared to take to the court again.
One activity that I have discovered through the Covid-19 lockdowns is skipping. If you, like me, don’t really enjoy running (unless it’s to chase a ball!) then you may find skipping is the perfect replacement for tennis. As well as being a great cardio workout, it’s been found that skipping actual burns more calories than running. You can also do this in your garden or even in your home. Skipping is great for your tennis game too as it will improve your footwork and coordination. So skip the treadmill and order that jump rope!
Tennis Programme
Roehampton Club’s coaching programme stopped on Wednesday 4th November. All sessions from the remainder of this term will be carried over to when the programme can resume. We hope to restart on Thursday 3rd December.
Keeping up with the Brits!
Although recreational tennis has stopped, the professional tour is still taking place. Roehampton Club’s 1st team player Lloyd Glasspool reached his third doubles final in three weeks. Unfortunately, Lloyd narrowly missed out on the title once again but is showing some great form. The ATP finals at the O2 in London will take place this weekend. Be sure to tune in to see if Roehampton Club’s Joe Salisbury and his partner Rajeev Ram can lift the Trophy in the season ending event!
If you want to keep up to date with how all the Brits are currently doing please click below.
We will remember them: The British Olympian and Wimbledon finalist killed in WW1With remembrance Sunday last week, the LTA have remembered an Olympian and Wimbledon finalist, Private Kenneth Powell who was one of around 750,000 Britons who died in combat in World War One. |
| A hugely talented athlete, he competed in two Olympic Games in the 110m hurdles, won the 1908 singles title at the Queen’s Club and reached the quarter-finals of the men’s singles at Wimbledon in 1913, having competed in the men’s doubles final in 1910. |
Read the full article here:
The History of Padel
January will see the work commence on Roehampton Club’s Padel courts. I know a lot of Members are excited about this and have already experienced the game. However, I am also aware a large amount of Members will not be familiar with it.
Known and referred to as Padel (or Padel tennis) the sport is derived from tennis and has been played for over a century. The name comes from the English word paddle, referring to the paddles players use during play.
In the 1960s, the Mexican Enrique Corcuera, considered to be the inventor of how the sport is played today, found inspiration in America’s platform tennis. The new sport was born when Mr. Corcuera modified an existing Fronton court (measuring 20 by 10 meters) at his holiday home in Acapulco by enclosing the court with walls and a metallic fence of up to four meters on all sides (this was to prevent the ball from escaping onto his neighbour’s land). He called the sport Paddle Corcuera. One of Enrique’s friends was Alfonso de Hohenlohe, one of the founding figures of Marbella in Spain, a man most associated with turning the sleepy town into the well-known beach resort destination for the international jet set that it is today. While visiting Mexico in 1974, Hohenlohe enjoyed this new game so much that he decided to import it to Spain’s Costa del Sol, where he built Spain’s first two paddle courts at the Marbella Club. The introduction of the courts marked the beginning of the game’s popularity among the members of this exclusive club, including the famous tennis player Manolo Santana. Soon, tournaments were being organized along the Costa del Sol as more and more clubs built their own courts. In 1975 an Argentine millionaire and Marbella-regular imported the sport to his country, where it became a sporting sensation. Today, there are more than two million officially licensed paddle players in Argentina, a country that boasts over 10,000 paddle courts.
In 1991 the International Paddle Federation was formed (FIP) by Julio Alegria Artiach, and in 1992 the first World Championships was arranged and hosted in the dual cities of Madrid and Seville. In 1992 the British Paddle Association was formed by a group of passionate British expats seeking to compete in the World Paddle Championships of 92.
From the southern coast of Spain, paddle began to spread to the rest of the country. In 1993, the Sports Council of Spain recognized Paddle as a sport whilst changing the spelling to Padel for pronunciation purposes in the Spanish language. In 2005, the Padel Pro Tour (PPT) was created, a professional circuit of tournaments where players from around the world compete for world ranking positions. In 2013, the World Padel Tour (WPT), a new circuit of professional tournaments was launched with key commercial partner, Estrella Damm (a leading Spanish beer brewery). With the majority of the tournaments being hosted in Spain, and a few in Argentina, the professional game has only really developed amongst Argentinian and Spanish players. To date, most content has only been produced in the Spanish language, and therefore it’s following, limiting the sport’s developments to mainly Hispanic nations.
However, the sport at recreational level is growing fast with lots of tennis clubs adding Padel to their offering. There are currently 82 Padel courts in Britain. Roehampton Club’s Padel courts will be located behind the crèche and squash courts where the mini tennis courts are currently. When the work is finished, we will have two Padel courts and a mini tennis court between them. A canopy will cover one of the Padel courts and both courts will have floodlights allowing play all year round. The racquets team are planning a full programme to include social, competitive and coaching opportunities.
The scoring of Padel is the same as tennis; however, the ball can be played off the glass walls at the back and sides of the court. If you want to read about the full rules of Padel please click the link below:
https://www.ltapadel.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/RULES-OF-PLAY.pdf
If you want to see the world’s top players play Padel check out this link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iVUUvdQmSQ