Brighton could become a capital of padel, UK's fastest-growing sport

Padel has been rapidly growing in popularity in recent years, and Sussex in particular has fully embraced the sport. It is a racquet sport that uses the same scoring conventions as lawn tennis but is played on courts around a third smaller.

The game is mainly played in the doubles format, with players using solid racquets with no strings.

The padel community in Sussex is showing no signs of stopping, with over 20 new courts either in development or set to open in the next few months.

Brighton and Hove City Council has opened four new padel courts on Hove Seafront, and demand has been beyond belief ever since.

As London has been chosen to host the FIP Intercontinental Cup between Europe and the Americas, and the seafront courts are booked up within minutes of booking becoming available, The Argus spoke to some of the key coaches and players in Sussex and the CEO of UK padel’s leading operator.

Michael Gradon, CEO of Game4Padel, which operates the Hove courts, spoke to the Argus about Brighton’s endless potential for padel courts.

“Brighton is a perfect place for padel - it’s a very young vibrant sporty place.”

He also emphasised the accessibility of the game: “This is for people who play any sport or no sport at all - almost a game rather than a sport," he said.

Michael has been playing padel since 1999, when he was chairman of La Manga, the largest sports resort in Europe, where he became “sucked into playing four days a week”.

He said: “At that stage there was nowhere to play in the UK for about 15 years.”

This led Game4Padel to begin developing padel courts in the UK in 2019, with Hove Seafront opening most recently to huge success.

Michael said: “Even with seven courts [in Brighton], the supply and demand balance is still not matched yet.”

He also praised the seafront location. “Even in the middle of winter, it is probably the most attractive padel venue in the whole of the UK,” he said.

Padel has been met with increasing interest throughout Sussex, not just in Brighton.

Sussex is a huge part of padel history, as Rye Lawn Tennis Club installed the first padel court at a club in the country back in 1997.

Stephanie Trill, an LTA councillor for Sussex and previous leader of the LTA development advisory group for padel, expressed her excitement at the surge in interest across the county.

“It’s been incredible to see how quickly padel has taken off across Sussex. There’s a real buzz, not just from racket players, but from people completely new to racket sports,” she said.

Stephanie played for GB in 2022 as part of the Seniors Squad, representing the country at the FIP Seniors Padel World Championship in Las Vegas.

She said: “Playing for the GB Seniors squad was a real honour and an amazing opportunity to watch, learn and compete at a high level.

“It really highlighted for me how strong and welcoming the padel community is, across all levels and ages.”

Wayne Jones, an LTA accredited padel coach and recent Cathie Sabin Volunteer of the Year winner for LTA Sussex, also praised the sociable nature of the game.

Wayne said: “The doubles format is inevitably more sociable, and people also tend to stay afterwards for a chat or a coffee or a beer.”

Wayne has been playing padel for more than six years, and started out at Burgess Hill back in 2019.

He said: “I’d had hip replacement surgery about eleven weeks earlier. I was already a member of the Triangle when I became aware that the court was coming but I didn’t know about padel until I saw it being played in Spain.

“I was hooked pretty much straight away.”

He also coined padel-obsessives “Paddicts”, and noted that most padel players quickly become obsessed, sometimes within hours.

There is a scientific explanation for this phenomenon. The fast-paced nature of the game and longer rallies naturally create more challenges for players, leading to more adrenaline being produced in the brain and players becoming easily hooked on the sport.

Other than its addictive nature, one of the driving forces behind padel’s appeal is its community’s focus on accessibility and inclusivity.

Karen Hazzard, a GB padel player who competed in both the European and World Championships, with the UK placing third in Europe in 2019, is one of the leading Sussex-based coaches who focuses on providing padel for anybody wanting to learn.

Karen opened and ran the original Withdean padel court for Game4Padel in 2021, which was just the second court to open in Sussex. She is now the director of padel at Hove Beach Park, and has been astonished by the popularity of the Brighton and Hove venues.

She said: “The demand for courts in Brighton and Hove has been quite unprecedented.

“The city has seen absolutely massive growth in four years.”

Karen also runs her own padel company with her partner Lucie Wade, the Brighton-based Padel Peeps, which offers inclusive events for anybody with an interest in padel.

The company runs events across the county that combine coaching support with friendly, social tournaments for players of all levels. Fresh off the back of representing England together at the recent Four Nations — where they won every match in their category — the pair are more inspired than ever to grow the game they love

Karen said: “Padel’s given us so much, we want to be able to give other people that same level of enjoyment.”