Join us (and Padel XTRA!) for a Festive Lunch to Remember
It’s that wonderful time of year again! A limited number of tickets are now available for our Annual Festive Lunch on Wednesday, December 3rd — hosted at the prestigious Queen’s Club, West Kensington. Enjoy a sparkling afternoon of delicious food, drinks, and great company as we celebrate the season in style.
Tickets: £90 + VAT for non-members (special discount for TIA members!)
To book your spot, email phil@tiauk.org — but hurry, tickets are limited!
Let’s raise a glass to the festive season together!
We are pleased to announce that Padel XTRA is our Xmas lunch sponsor this year. Will Wells, CEO, says it is a great opportunity ‘to celebrate all the brilliant people who make the tennis and padel racquet sports industry what it is’.
Padel XTRA is a premium padel club operator pioneering scalable growth across the UK and emerging international markets. At Padel XTRA, they’re on a mission to make padel the UK’s favourite racquet sport – alongside tennis, of course – and judging by their development pipeline, set to become a significant player.
Led by tennis industry veterans Jon Southcombe and Steve Matthews, alongside Team GB padel player Will Wells, Padel XTRA opened their first club this year 6,000 miles away in Vietnam, a country with only a handful of courts, in a city, DaNang, which had never seen padel! It’s been a hit with expats and tourists, whilst locals are now converting from pickleball to padel!
2026 will see a significant roll-out of new Padel XTRA clubs across the UK and are keen to look at suitable development sites, particularly alongside existing leisure facilities, clubs and parks.
Spring Forum – Save the date
TIA UK Spring Forum for 2026 will be held on Thursday 23th April at the offices of Pinsent Masons. Look out for further details.
SAPCA Technical Conference
Our colleagues at SAPCA are holding its 2025 Technical Conference at the East Midlands Conference Centre, which sits within the Nottingham University campus on Thursday 27th November between 9.30 and 16.00. The day offers opportunities to hear from experts within their fields and network with the sports and play construction industry. The day activities will be followed with an informal networking dinner.
Highlights this year will include:
- England International footballer, Karen Bardsley, talking about how excellence in facilities breeds excellence on the pitch
- Manchester City Heads of Grounds showing us the operations of a world class facility
- Richard Earl from TGMS will talk us through the recently released Sport England’s Natural Sportsturf Guidance
- Ed Hunt from UK Athletics will highlight developments in athletics
- Alastair Cox from the FIH will be show the work being done alongside FIFA on the multi-sport concept
- The ever-popular session from Prof. Paul Fleming on the latest research in sports surfacing from Loughborough University
- An update on the SAPCA Tennis Code of Practice
Further details and booking via the SAPCA website
The International Tennis Federation will change its name to “World Tennis” as of 2026.
The switch was ratified this month by member national tennis associations voting at the governing body’s annual general meeting. “The change will provide a clearer identity that is more relevant to players, fans, partners and tennis stakeholders around the world, and brings the brand in line with a majority of sport’s most prominent global governing bodies,” the ITF said in a statement. ITF president David Haggerty added: “World Tennis better reflects who we are today; the global governing body and guardian of tennis, working hard with our members to deliver tennis for life.”
Founded as the International Lawn Tennis Federation in Paris in 1913, the organisation became the International Tennis Federation in 1977.
Padel and Pickleball News
London
AT Sports’ RollX court made its debut in London this month to help grow the game of pickleball worldwide. AT Sport’s Tracy Lynch was on-site to celebrate alongside Emmanuel Otu, ambassador for Pickleball Lambeth, who has been instrumental in helping grow the game across London. The RollX court was featured at Brand Licensing Europe (BLE) in London, where Lotto Sport hosted a pickleball event that showcased its portable court system.
Glasgow
Tennis stars including British number one Jack Draper have urged Glasgow City council not to turn indoor courts into padel courts. Glasgow Life, who run the council’s sport operations, intend to convert two of eight indoor courts at Scotstoun Leisure Centre into facilities for padel. However the plans have been criticised by Tennis Scotland. It says any move would harm development of young players.
Draper and Scotland’s British number three Jacob Fearnley are among the signatories to a letter sent from Tennis Scotland to the local authority. In the letter – Tennis Scotland’s chief executive Blane Dodds says existing and future tour-level events could disappear from the calendar if plans proceed.
Blane Dodds claims Tennis Scotland and their partners are willing to provide an interest-free loan for the creation of a four-court padel facility at Scotstoun, so that the eight-court indoor tennis arena can remain in situ. The letter states: “There is a need for more additional community-accessible indoor tennis courts in Glasgow, not fewer… the national strategy is to increase the number of indoor tennis courts. Removing indoors tennis courts is counter [to] this national strategy.”
Tennis Scotland say the two sports are not compatible to share facilities, and that “no evidence has been presented to show that a shared environment between tennis and padel is conducive to playing either sport”. Instead it proposes providing an interest-free loan to fund a four-court, covered padel facility on the grounds of Scotstoun and that it is confident any loan would be repaid within three years.
Curtesy: BBC News Scotland
Coventry
Coventry City Council is inviting experienced developers and operators of padel tennis to apply to take on a commercial lease to offer the sport in two key locations – War Memorial Park and Longford Park. This opportunity will see the successful applicant awarded a 15-year commercial lease at each site, subject to negotiation. The leases will cover each site for permitted use as padel courts, with the addition of food and beverage provision at Longford Park.
The Council seeks proposals from operators who can design, build and operate a minimum of four courts at each site. Applicants are encouraged to include Go CV pricing offer as part of their community access provisions. The deadline for submitting Expressions of Interest is 12 pm, Friday 14 November. Submissions must be made via the CSW-JETS portal.
Frinton on Sea
Long-established Frinton Lawn Tennis Club in Essex has set out plans to revamp its facilities to offer a greater range of racket sports to players. The club offers 24 tennis courts, six of which are uncovered hard courts and two courts under an air dome, two squash courts, a croquet lawn, as well as a gym and a swimming pool. The club has now revealed plans to turn two of its outside tennis courts into two padel courts.
Bury
Bury Council planners have approved an application from Love Padel Ltd for five new padel courts and a clubhouse on a former caravan centre in Radcliffe.
Wiltshire
Pure Padel has obtained approval for indoor and outdoor padel at Royal Wooton Bassett. The company claimed its new facility, which would come with a customer kiosk and canopies, would offer an “outdoor social space to foster a sense of community among padel players.”
The five indoor padel courts, two outdoor courts and nearby kiosk will be built at the Royal Wootton Bassett sports ground within the next three years. However, Wiltshire Council has specified that mitigation strategies to protect local trees must be followed, and a replacement playing field must be implemented and available for use before work on the courts can begin.
Glasgow
The Forge Retail Park Cineworld closed last year and Glasgow’s first indoor padel complex is set to replace it. Pure Padel has lodged planning applications to transform the sprawling 40,000 sq ft space into the city’s biggest indoor padel complex. It will boast a competition court alongside dining and drinking areas, plus social spaces. It will also mark the company’s most ambitious venue to date.
