Something big is happening to UK padel in August. For the first time ever, the Premier Padel Tour – the top professional circuit in the sport – is coming to London. The world’s best players, on British soil, competing at the highest level. If you’ve been playing for a year or two and wondered whether padel might go somewhere in this country, here’s your answer.
What is Premier Padel?
Premier Padel is the professional padel tour – the ATP or WTA equivalent of the sport, where the world’s elite compete for ranking points at events across Europe, the Americas, and the Middle East.
Run in partnership with the International Padel Federation (FIP) and backed by title sponsorship from Qatar Airways, Premier Padel is the pinnacle of the professional game. The circuit runs from January through to the end of year Finals, with events across three tiers: Majors (the biggest, think Grand Slam equivalent), P1s (elite, full professional field), and P2s. Until this week’s announcement, the UK hadn’t appeared anywhere on that calendar.
That changes in August.
Britain’s first top-level pro padel event
The London P1 takes place from 3–9 August 2026. As a P1, it sits just one rung below the Majors on the Premier Padel ladder – events at this tier attract the full field of elite men’s and women’s professionals and carry significant ranking points. This is professional padel at the very top of the game, and it’s coming to London.
The event was made possible through a multi-year partnership between Sela – the Saudi events and entertainment company that also backs Newcastle United – and Premier Padel, with the LTA providing support as the sport’s national governing body. Scott Lloyd, the LTA’s CEO, called it a “landmark event for British padel.” David Sugden, Premier Padel’s CEO, described London as offering “an unparalleled opportunity for global expansion of Premier Padel.” Stewart Hosford, Sela’s CEO, said the event “will set a new benchmark for padel in the UK.”
The official venue hasn’t been confirmed at time of writing. Olympia in Kensington is widely reported as the strong frontrunner – a vast, recently-redeveloped exhibition venue that would give the event the scale and atmosphere it deserves. An announcement is expected in the coming months.
What it means for UK padel
More than 400,000 people are playing padel in Britain. There are over 1,000 courts nationwide. That growth has happened entirely bottom-up: club openings, Playtomic bookings, word-of-mouth, and a lot of persuading reluctant tennis players to try something new. What’s been missing is a professional showcase – something that gives the sport visibility far beyond those already playing it.
A P1 in London delivers that. It creates a focal point for the community. It gives casual players something to aspire to watch. It brings broadcast coverage, media attention, and sponsorship conversations that would otherwise pass Britain by entirely. And it signals to potential investors, club developers, and equipment brands that the UK padel market has arrived. A multi-year deal rather than a one-off suggests Sela and Premier Padel see this as a long-term bet on Britain, which is the most encouraging part of the announcement.
British players to watch
No player announcements have been made yet – the full draw will be confirmed closer to August – but two British professionals are worth tracking in the build-up:
Aimee Gibson is the British women’s number one and currently ranked 90th in the world – the first British woman ever to break into the FIP top 100. She only turned professional in 2023, after winning six LTA Grade 1 events without dropping a set. Since then she’s accumulated nine professional titles, including a FIP Silver at the Australian Padel Open. She’s 34, left-handed, and plays an aggressive net game built around the chiquita. A home crowd in London would be a completely different experience from the international circuit.
Christian Medina Murphy is the British men’s number one. The Kingston-born 28-year-old made the transition from tennis to padel at 14 and has been a professional since 2018. His FIP career high ranking is 103. His most significant result to date came earlier this year when he reached the quarter-finals of a Premier Padel event in Cancun – one of the strongest performances any British man has put in at the elite level. Playing in front of a London crowd in August would be a significant step up.
Both players are realistic candidates to be included in the draw. Watch for announcements from the LTA and Premier Padel as August gets closer.
How to attend
Tickets are not yet on sale. The best way to stay informed is to register your interest at sportonspec.co.uk/event/premier-padel-london – they’ll send you a notification as soon as tickets become available. There’s also a separate registration form for hospitality and premium packages.
Given this is the first P1 event ever held in Britain, demand is likely to be strong from both the padel community and general sports fans curious to see what the sport looks like at the professional level. Worth registering sooner rather than later. Pricing and format (day passes, session tickets, full-week passes) haven’t been announced yet.
Watch at home on Red Bull TV
Can’t make it to London? Red Bull TV holds the streaming rights for the Premier Padel Tour and broadcasts are free. Quarter-finals, semi-finals, and the final will all be livestreamed on Red Bull TV. Earlier rounds – qualifying stages and the round of 16 – are available on the Premier Padel YouTube channel.
Both platforms are free to access. Set a reminder for the week of 3–9 August, and you can follow the action from home without paying anything.
Why this matters
Four years ago, padel barely existed in Britain as anything more than a novelty. Now there are a thousand courts, hundreds of thousands of players, and the world’s top professional circuit is arriving in London for a week. That trajectory is worth pausing to appreciate.
The P1 alone won’t solve the sport’s structural challenges – courts are still oversubscribed in most cities, and plenty of clubs are still working out how to run a good Americano. But a professional event at this level does something that no volume of grassroots growth can achieve on its own: it makes the sport feel like it has arrived. For anyone who’s picked up a padel racket in the last couple of years and loved watching it grow, August is a moment worth marking.
The dates are set. Mark them. For the full guide on where to follow Premier Padel coverage – broadcasts, streams, and highlights – how to watch padel covers it. And for the British players most likely to be in the draw, Catherine Rose’s FIP title in Singapore earlier in 2026 is worth reading – it’s the context for why the British women’s game arrives at this moment in decent shape.