Great Britain secured their places in the Final 8 of both the men’s and women’s competitions in the FIP Euro Padel Cup after sublime performances over the weekend in Madrid.
This year’s reformatted, rebranded version of the old European Championships was split into three phases. Both GB teams joined the action in Phase 2 last Friday and needed to finish top of their respective groups in order to qualify for the Final 8 later this year, when big guns Spain, Italy, France and Portugal enter the action.
For GB’s men, a favourable draw pitted them with Switzerland, Greece and Monaco in Group C and they breezed to a hat-trick of clean sweep 3-0 victories to comfortably qualify for the climatic final phase, for which there is no date or venue yet announced.
GB’s no.1 pair Christian Medina Murphy and Sam Jones barely broke sweat across the three matches, Louie Harris and debutant Alex Loughlan were rock solid and co-captains Sandy Farquharson and John Leach experimented with the no.3 pairings by giving Jamie Lobo and Sandy’s younger brother Tom Farquharson their first international outings.
For GB’s women, the passage to the Final 8 was not quite as straight-forward. Due to finishing 10th at the 2024 Euros in Sardinia, they were in the second pot of seeds and the group draw paired them with Austria, Poland and top-seeded Sweden, against whom they had lost 3-0 last year.
After seeing off Austria and Poland comfortably enough (with 15-year-old Rosie Quirk making a winning GB debut alongside Abi Tordoff against the Austrians), GB’s fate inevitably came down to the final clash with the Swedes – and amidst a raucous atmosphere inside the G24 arena on Sunday morning, they came through it rather brilliantly.
Aimee Gibson and Tia Norton, who dropped just four games in three matches across the weekend, dismissed Sweden’s no.1 pair Smilla Borup Lundgren and Juni Sjöland 6-2 6-0, but Sweden levelled up when what was essentially their no.1 pairing, Amanda Girdo and Linnea Björk, saw off Abigail Tordoff and debutante Laura Jackson in rapid fashion 6-1 6-0.
So, it all came down to GB no.2 Catherine Rose and Lisa Phillips and they hit their straps with a double break in the first set to take it 6-2. The second set saw the tension levels rising though as a break apiece saw it go to a tiebreak.
A good start with an early mini break was key and at the change of ends the pumped-up Brits were 5-1 ahead. The next two points disappeared in a trice and suddenly the entire British contingent was on court dancing in celebration.
So both GB teams heads to the Final 8 for what will be a fascinating litmus test of our status within the European padel hierarchy. Although a date and venue are as-yet unannounced, whispers are it will be back in Spain some time in the autumn.
FIP Euro Padel Cup – Final 8 qualifiers
Men: Spain, Italy, Portugal, France, Netherlands, Sweden, Germany, Great Britain
Women: Spain, Italy, France, Portugal, Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, Great Britain
Check out all the final group standing and results from Phase 2
