The García-Jiménez pair light up London. Arroyo and Martinez the main challengers

The build-up to the historic first Premier Padel P1 in London continues: after the FIP Bronze held in London at the beginning of May, the English capital will host the FIP Silver HOP London Padel Open this weekend at ‘The Padel Hub North London’. The main draw of the tournament will begin on Friday 22 May and conclude on Sunday 24 May.

 

Leading the men’s draw are Javi García and Jose Jimenez, No. 20 and 32 in the FIP Ranking. The pair arrive in London after reaching the quarter-finals of the Premier Padel P1 in Buenos Aires, where they were defeated by Franco Stupaczuk and Mike Yanguas. García and Jimenez have enjoyed a strong run of results in recent weeks, including victory at the FIP Silver Gran Canaria at the end of April and triumph at the FIP Silver Teramo in early May. The two Spaniards will also aim to lift the trophy at this CUPRA FIP Tour event, although they will have to overcome strong opposition, above all the tournament’s No.2 seeds Álex Arroyo (21) and Javi Martinez (55). Arroyo’s best result of the season so far was reaching the semi-finals of the P2 in Cancún alongside Tolito Aguirre. Beyond the top two pairs, several other notable names are entered in the tournament, from Pol Hernández and Guillermo Collado, winners this year of the FIP Silver Espoo in Finland, to Álvaro Cepero and Agustín Torre, as well as Rodrigo Coello, recent winner of the FIP Bronze Miami, and Adam Axelsson. Enrique Goenaga will also be one to watch as he competes alongside Andrés Fernández Lancha. The wild cards for this event are Rio Hanif-Jaime Lobo Wordsworth and Samuel Jones-Nikhil Mohindra.

 

The leading contenders for the women’s title are FIP Ranking No.25 Jessica Castelló and Lorena Rufo, who are targeting their first title of the year on this circuit after finishing runners-up at the FIP Gold Almaty. In their last two Premier Padel tournaments, they reached the round of 16 in Buenos Aires (P1) and the quarter-finals in Brussels (P2). Also in contention for the title are Lucía Sainz and Jana Montes. The latter has already won the FIP Silver titles in Caen and Bari this year, while Sainz lifted the trophies at the FIP Silver Manila and Parma, in addition to the FIP Platinum Marseille. The tournament’s No.3 seeds are Marta Caparrós (30) and Julieta Bidahorria (40), winners in April of the FIP Silver Abidjan in Ivory Coast. Also worth watching are Carla Touly and Amanda López, winner of the Spanish FIP Bronze events in Elche and Seville. There will be three women’s wild cards: Kace Bartley-Sophie Bray, Romina Belda-Megan Ward and Ainhoa Rico Martin-Rosie Pooley.