09/02/2022
Tia Nortonās big dream and her mission to spread the padel message
It is a sport that is gathering momentum at a rapid pace around the world, with Tia Norton leading the charge for a padel revolution in the UK.
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp is a huge fan of the sport and even has his own range of padel rackets, with former Chelsea captain John Terry and Swedish soccer superstar Zlatan Ibrahimovic also regular padel players.
With A-list backing in abundance, padel has been described as a cross between tennis and squash, padel is played on a court surrounded by a perspex surround that allows players to hit the ball after it bounces back off the wall.
Padelās breakthrough moment in the UK came when the Lawn Tennis Association took padel under its wing in November 2020, opening up the prospect of tennis clubs across the country gaining grants to build padel courts to go alongside their existing facilities.
Now padel is being boosted by rising stars like teenager Norton, who spoke to Tennis365 in her role as a Game4Padel ambassador.
āPadel is essentially tennis and squad as the same sport,ā Tia told us. āItās so fun, itās easy to play and one of the best things compared to tennis is you donāt have to run after the ball.