The London Premier Padel P1 made its long-awaited debut on Tuesday at the iconic Olympia London, with the opening matches of the men’s main draw (Round of 64) and the first women’s main draw clashes (Round of 32). A landmark day for padel in the UK ended with a home hero: Christian Medina Murphy.
The British No. 1 delivered the first major moment for the growing UK padel community, teaming up with Spain’s Alberto García Jiménez to claim an impressive opening victory. The pair defeated Italian-Argentine duo Gutiérrez-Giuliani 6-2, 6-2 in the final match of the day on Olympia's spectacular Centre Court.
Medina Murphy is now the only British player remaining in the main draw after the rest of the home contingent fell in their opening matches. British No. 1 women’s pairing Aimee Gibson and Catherine Rose pushed Alix Collombon and Ksenia Sharifova all the way, but eventually fell after a dramatic second-set tie-break (6-1, 7-6(5)). Louie Harris also bowed out against Pineda-Ruiz (6-3, 6-2), while home duo Salisbury-Patacho were beaten by Belluati-Piotto (6-2, 6-4).
Medina Murphy and García Jiménez will look to continue their run on Wednesday when they face No. 10 seeds Juan Tello and Maxi Arce, as the biggest names in men’s padel enter the tournament.
World No. 1s Arturo Coello and Agustín Tapia begin their campaign against Portugal's Deus brothers, who reached the second round after a superb comeback win over Vilariño-Zamora (5-7, 6-3, 6-4).
Pretoria P1 champions Alejandro Galán and Federico Chingotto (#2) will take on Italians Abbate-Montiel, who produced their own comeback victory on Tuesday against Rubini-Maxi Sánchez (4-6, 7-5, 6-2). Juan Lebrón and Leo Augsburger (#3) face Thomas Leygue and Clément Geens, while Yanguas-Stupaczuk (#4) meet Solano-Pereyra.
Wednesday’s Round of 32 action begins at 10:00 BST, with women’s No. 5 seeds Marta Ortega and Sofia Araújo opening play on Centre Court against Giulia Dal Pozzo and Nuria Rodríguez in what promises to be a closely fought contest.
The women’s top four pairs —Triay-Brea, González-Josemaría, Sánchez-Ustero and Calvo-Fernández— will enter the competition on Thursday, starting directly in the Round of 16.
