A busy week for British padel. Catherine Rose and the returning Aimee Gibson battled to a FIP Silver final in Dublin, the celebrity-fronted Pro Am Padel Tour confirmed a talkSPORT-backed return, and the club-building boom rolled on with another new venue opening its doors. Here is your UK round-up for 13–19 July 2026.
British Players on Tour
The standout result came at the FIP Silver Hiscox Padel Irish Open in Dublin (15–19 July), where British No.1 Catherine Rose and Aimee Gibson reached the women’s final. The pair produced the run of the tournament, seeing off second seeds Ana Dominguez Gracia and Aida Martinez Sanjuan 6–4, 6–4 in the semi-finals before running into top seeds Noemi Aguilar Carrillo and Letizia Manquillo Alarza in the final, going down 6–2, 7–5.
It was a strong week for Gibson in particular, who only recently returned from a five-month injury lay-off. Reaching a FIP Silver final on the road across the Irish Sea is a clear step up from her quarter-final exit in Belfast a week earlier, and it keeps a British pairing firmly in the mix on the international circuit heading into a packed late-summer schedule.
Grassroots & Growth
Off the court, the biggest news was the return of the Pro Am Padel Tour for a fourth season, confirmed on 14 July with a major new broadcast partnership. talkSPORT will cover the tour’s Grand Final on its YouTube channel – which has close to two million subscribers – marking one of the clearest signs yet of padel pushing into mainstream British sports media.
The LTA continues as Strategic Partner, tying the celebrity circuit to genuine grassroots work: youth clinics, teacher-training initiatives and adaptive sessions for SEND athletes, delivered alongside community organisations in cities including Manchester, Leeds and East London. The 2026 season opens in Manchester before a four-event run that climaxes with the Grand Final at Padium in London on 21 October. British pros including Rose, Louie Harris, Alex Loughlan and Cameron Dollimore are all set to feature alongside sporting names from football, cricket, rugby and Paralympic sport.
Clubs & Courts
The court-building surge showed no sign of slowing. PadelX at The Ponsbourne Club in Hertfordshire opened on 18 July, adding another venue to the fast-growing map of places to play in the Home Counties.
There was progress too on Merseyside, where Ignite Padel is pressing ahead with the expansion of its Speke site into what it claims will be the largest single padel venue in the UK. The flagship club is set to double from 27,500 to 56,000 square feet and grow from 10 to 17 courts – level with Manchester’s Carbon Padel – with completion due in August. The upgraded facility will add a tournament-standard viewing gallery, a wellness centre and 100 extra parking spaces, with the operator openly targeting FIP tournament hosting in future.
If all the new venues have you thinking about an upgrade, our guides to the best padel rackets for 2026 and the best padel shoes for UK courts are a good place to start before your next session.
The Week Ahead
The Pro Am Padel Tour gets its 2026 campaign underway at Pure Padel Stockport on Wednesday 22 July, with a community day of school and adaptive sessions leading into the headline Celebrity Pro Am. Beyond that, all eyes turn to London’s first Premier Padel P1 in early August, where a strong contingent of British wildcards will get the chance to test themselves against the world’s best on home soil for the very first time.
That is your lot for this week. We’ll be back next Monday with another round-up of everything happening in British padel.
