LTA eye merger with growing sport of ‘padel’

THE growing sport of padel is set to come under the umbrella of British tennis in a highly unusual partnership between two governing bodies.

The lawn Tennis Association are in talks to help promote the increasingly popular game, which is a hybrid of tennis and squash and widely played in Europe.

The move is expected to involve two padel courts being built at the National Tennis Centre in Roehampton — at a time when British professional players have been baffled to discover that the main clay courts there are out of action.

Just when they are needed for preparation for the European clay season, two courts have been dug up and will not be ready until May.

British No 2 Cam Norrie (above), who yesterday lost 4-6, 7-6, 6-3 in the first round of the Miami Open to Australia’s Jordan Thompson, is among those who will now have to practise elsewhere. ‘I saw they were dug up but I just assumed they would be ready,’ he said.

The lTA are in talks with British Padel about some kind of merger, even though it is hardly a marriage of equals. There are 55 courts in the UK for the sport that is played with wooden bats and receives no public funding — the lTA get £ 35- 40million annually from Wimbledon profits alone.

A spokesman said: ‘The lTA are committed to opening up the sport to as many people as possible and are looking at innovative ways and formats of the game to achieve this. We are in discussions with potential partners on exciting ways to engage new audiences.’