Some weeks in British padel are quiet. This was not one of them. The seven days from 27 July to 2 August were essentially one long run up to the biggest tournament this country has ever staged, with a full FIP Silver taking place on British soil at the same time. Here is what actually mattered.
Olympia gets ready for Britain’s first Premier Padel event
On 28 July the LTA published its full preview for the London Premier Padel P1, confirming the detail British fans have been waiting months to read. The main draw runs from 4 to 9 August at Olympia in West Kensington, preceded by two days of qualifying on Sunday 2 and Monday 3 August. It is the first time padel’s elite global circuit has ever come to British soil.
The venue is part of the story. Olympia has hosted landmark cultural and sporting events for 140 years and has only just reopened after a £1.3 billion transformation, complete with a glass rooftop canopy and two and a half acres of public space. Alongside the padel there will be an interactive multi ball wall, a VR and AR experience, a kids’ court and swingball stations, which tells you the LTA is treating this as a participation showcase as much as a professional one.
For context on where a P1 sits, the 2026 Premier Padel calendar runs to 26 tournaments across 18 countries: four Majors in Doha, Rome, Paris and Acapulco, ten events at P1 level including London, eleven at P2, then the season ending Finals. London is a genuine second tier stop on the world circuit, not an exhibition.
Twelve British wildcards confirmed
Twelve British players have been handed wildcards, seven of them straight into the main draw round of 32 on Wednesday 4 and Thursday 5 August.
British No.1 Aimee Gibson and British No.2 Catherine Rose carry the best home hopes. The pair reunited recently after Gibson’s five month injury layoff, and their results since have pushed both back inside the world’s top 100. On the men’s side, British No.1 Christian Medina Murphy, the world No.174, partners Spain’s Alberto Garcia Jimenez in the round of 32. Louie Harris and Alex Loughlan, British No.2 and No.3 respectively, are also in, as are Chris Salisbury and Alfonso Patacho.
Qualifying adds four more names: Britain’s No.1 junior Ben Phillips alongside Jamie Lobo Wordsworth, Cameron Dollimore with Theo Garton, and British No.3 Tia Norton partnering Belgium’s Helena Wyckaert.
Ben Phillips and the fractured wrist
The best story of the week landed on 29 July, when The Padel Paper published its interview with Phillips. At 17, and Britain’s U18 No.1, he is set to become the youngest Brit ever to play Premier Padel. He very nearly missed it.
In late June he came off his bike on the way to training at Rocks Lane and fractured his wrist. A&E told him he faced up to eight weeks out, which would have wiped out the FIP Junior Euro Padel Cup, an LTA Grade 1 and, most painfully, London.
“I refused to accept that,” he told the paper. He went to Professor Moran at Nottingham QMC for a second opinion, had a new cast fitted two days later and was given four weeks rather than eight. He then represented Great Britain at the European Championships, won the following LTA Grade 1 alongside Sam Jones, and had the cast off exactly two weeks before London. He has since spent four days training in Seville with Lobo Wordsworth, and said the pair were due to play the Jersey FIP Silver together as their final tune up.
FIP Silver comes to Jersey
While the mainland looked towards Olympia, Jersey quietly hosted a full stop on the Cupra FIP Tour. The FIP Silver Rathbones Island Padel ran from 27 July to 2 August at Island Padel in St Clement, with €18,000 in prize money on the line. Qualifying was played on 29 July, the 32 pair main draw began on 31 July and the finals were held on Sunday 2 August.
It is worth pausing on that. An island of roughly 100,000 people is now a recurring fixture on the international calendar, drawing top 100 ranked players to outdoor courts in the Channel Islands. For British players it is one of the few chances all year to earn FIP ranking points without leaving home, and several used it as sharpening work before London.
Clubs and courts
The court build out carried on at its usual pace. Enfield Council approved plans in July for three covered and floodlit courts at Southbury Leisure Centre in north London, with construction due to begin in the coming months. In Kent, Pulse Padel’s three court site at Maidstone YMCA has been listed for a July opening, and Burnham Parish Council’s courts at the George Pitcher Memorial Ground, delivered with Padel Powerhouse, were also scheduled for the summer.
If you are trying to work out what has actually opened near you rather than what is still on a planning portal, our UK padel clubs directory lists venues county by county.
The week ahead
Everything points at Olympia. Qualifying started on Sunday 2 August and continues on Monday 3 August, with the main draw running from Wednesday 4 to Sunday 9 August. UK viewers can follow it free on Red Bull TV and the Premier Padel YouTube channel, and tickets remain available through the LTA.
If a week of watching the world’s best is likely to send you shopping, our guides to the best padel rackets of 2026 and the best padel shoes in the UK are a sensible place to start before you copy whatever Coello is holding.
Sources
- LTA Padel: London Premier Padel P1 2026 preview, draws, results and how to watch live (28 July 2026)
- The Padel Paper: Ben Phillips and the Premier Padel debut that almost never was (29 July 2026)
- Padel FIP: FIP Silver Rathbones Island Padel 2026 tournament information
- New padel courts are coming to Enfield
- Pulse Padel: Maidstone venue
- Burnham Parish Council: two new padel courts arriving in July 2026
