England’s lawn tennis clubs gripped by padel fever

Some of Britain’s oldest tennis clubs have been forced to introduce waiting lists for people wanting to play padel after struggling to satisfy soaring demand for one of the world’s fastest growing sports.

Padel, which mixes elements of tennis and squash and is played inside a glass-walled court, has a longstanding fan base in Spain and parts of Latin America, but is new to the UK. There are currently about 350 courts spread across the country, compared with more than 15,000 in Spain.

The Lawn Tennis Association estimates that about 90,000 people currently play padel in the UK, up from just 6,000 in 2020. The LTA hopes there will be 1,000 courts and 600,000 players by the end of 2026, according to Tom Murray, its head of padel.

In big cities, padel courts are often taken up by European workers who know the game from their home countries, while in the suburbs and beyond many older people have been turning to padel as a less demanding form of exercise.

Advocates say the game is easy to pick up for people of all ages, especially when compared with tennis, while its standard doubles format makes it more sociable.

A growing number of traditional tennis clubs have embraced padel as a way to increase revenue and broaden membership, and are now racing to build new courts as appetite explodes.

Epsom Lawn Tennis Club, founded in 1898, is awaiting planning permission to add two extra padel courts after finding that its three existing courts were heavily oversubscribed. It now has a waiting list of more than 150 people seeking to join its 280 padel-only members, according to Mark Ayers, chair emeritus of Epsom LTC. “It’s really transformed the club. It just feels more lively,” he said. 

Sundridge Park Sports Club in Bromley, which opened in 1908, has also halted new padel memberships after occupancy rates for its two outdoor courts rose above 90 per cent. With more than 100 people now waiting to sign up, club manager Jo Powlson said that even the pending addition of a third court is unlikely to meet demand, and that a fourth court is already being discussed.

“It’s gone from strength to strength in a very short space of time. The padel courts are the courts that are always busy,” she said. “It’s brought a new vibrancy to the club — we’ve got a completely new mix of people coming in.”

Esher Lawn Tennis Club marked its 125th anniversary last month by changing its name to the Esher Tennis and Padel Club. It has had a waiting list for padel players since June.

Several of London’s most prestigious clubs now offer padel, including the 154-year-old Hurlingham Club in Fulham and Chelsea’s Harbour Club, as well as long-running venues across the country, such as the Ilkley Lawn Tennis & Squash Club in Yorkshire and Birmingham’s Edgbaston Priory Club — both founded in the 19th century.

Alongside members clubs, investors and private companies have been building padel courts in an effort to serve rising demand. 

Michael Gradon, chief executive of court developer and operator Game4Padel, said he was receiving “half a dozen calls a week” from interested parties looking to build courts. His company, which counts tennis star Andy Murray and Liverpool FC captain Virgil Van Dijk among its investors, currently operates 45 courts, but has a target of close to 400 courts by the end of 2027.  

Gradon, a former board member of the Wimbledon Championships, expects there to be “an ever growing number of tennis clubs” wanting to add padel, but cautioned that many face high hurdles — including a lengthy planning process, potential discord among members, and steep construction costs. An outdoor padel court typically costs about £75,000 to install, but the cost rises threefold for covered courts.

Instead Gradon believes leisure centres, shopping malls and underused public tennis courts will provide much of the sport’s next leg of growth.  

“The types of place you can build a padel court is almost infinite,” he said.