On 9 March 2026, Catherine Rose became the women’s champion at the first-ever CUPRA FIP Tour event held in Singapore. She and her Spanish partner Lucía Pérez Parra went through the entire draw without dropping a set, beating second seeds Carla Fernandez Gonzalez and Nerea Guerra Santana 6-3, 6-4 in the final.

It is Rose’s fourth FIP title of her career – but her first in over a year, and her first without Aimee Gibson. That last part matters more than it might seem.

What is the FIP circuit?

If you’ve been following British padel at all, you’ve probably heard of Premier Padel – the top professional tour, jointly backed by the International Padel Federation (FIP) and the Professional Padel Association (PPA), which is coming to London for a P1 event in August 2026. Think of it as the ATP Tour of padel.

The FIP circuit sits one tier below. Events are graded Bronze, Silver, and Gold, with Bronze being the entry point for players looking to build FIP world ranking points. Winning a Bronze event doesn’t guarantee you a spot at a Major, but the ranking points accumulate – and the route from FIP Bronze to Premier Padel qualifying is well established. It’s the circuit where Britain’s best women have been building credibility over the past two years.

Who is Catherine Rose?

Rose is 26, from London, and turned professional in July 2024 – less than three years after picking up a padel racket for the first time at the National Tennis Centre. Like several of Britain’s top padel players, she came through junior tennis, and the technical foundation transferred quickly.

She is currently ranked No. 113 on the FIP world rankings, with a career high of 94. She plays the right side, trains at The Padel Hub in Epsom, and is ranked GB No. 2 women’s – behind only Gibson.

Singapore was her fourth tournament alongside Lucía Pérez Parra, a Spanish player she met at Madrid’s Diagonal Academy earlier this year. Rose described the win as overcoming “a great mental barrier” – her pair had lost to Fernandez and Guerra multiple times before, and that history had started to weigh on her. Winning the final cleanly, without dropping a set all week, clearly meant something.

Why her partnership with Pérez matters

For most of Rose’s international career to date, she has played alongside Aimee Gibson – Britain’s No. 1 and the first British woman to break the FIP world top 100. Together they won back-to-back FIP Silver titles at the Australian and Melbourne Opens in early 2025. Their record as a pair has been impressive.

But partnerships on the FIP circuit are not exclusive. Players mix and match throughout the season, pairing with whoever gives them the best shot at a particular event. Gibson has been recovering from a calf tear sustained in Bahrain, which disrupted her schedule earlier this year. She has since returned to competition – winning a 2026 FIP title herself in Doha alongside Spanish player Alba Pérez Momha – but her absence created space for Rose to step out independently.

Singapore was that moment. Rose found a committed partner willing to build something over multiple tournaments rather than switching after a bad result, and the combination worked. Going through a draw unbeaten, including a 6-3, 6-0 semifinal over the top seeds, is not a fluke.

What this means for British women’s padel

The thing about Rose’s win that deserves attention is what it suggests about depth.

For the past couple of years, the story of British women’s padel has been largely told through Gibson – an exceptional player who came to the sport late and progressed faster than almost anyone predicted. She has been the headline, the record-breaker, the benchmark. Rose has always been there too, but often in Gibson’s orbit.

Singapore is a signal that Britain now has two women capable of competing for FIP titles independently. Rose winning without her regular partner – in a new international pairing, on the other side of the world, at the first event of a new CUPRA-backed circuit – is not a minor footnote. It is evidence of a player who has developed enough to stand on her own terms.

Gibson is ranked No. 91. Rose is at No. 113. Those two numbers, side by side, represent something that very few countries can point to: a clear first and second who are both operating at world tour level in the same generation. The gap between them is smaller than the gap between either of them and the next British player below.

The bigger picture

British women’s padel is building something. The LTA has invested in a performance pathway. The 2026 calendar includes FIP events, a London Premier Padel P1, and an international junior event at Stratford. The infrastructure is there in a way it simply wasn’t two years ago.

Rose and Gibson will almost certainly pair up again at various points this season – their shared record is too good to ignore. But the fact that Rose can win without Gibson, and Gibson can win without Rose, means British women’s padel is not a story with one protagonist any more.

For a sport that is still working out what British success looks like at international level, that matters. Two players. Two separate titles in 2026 before March is out. A long season still ahead.

The casual player booking courts twice a week doesn’t need to follow the FIP rankings to appreciate that something is taking shape. When London hosts its Premier Padel event in August, there will be British women in the draw who belong there. Singapore just reminded us why. On the same 2026 calendar, Gibson also picked up a FIP title in Doha – the full picture of her year is in the Aimee Gibson CMG signing announcement. And if you want to follow these players at tournament level, how to watch padel covers where to find coverage.