The Padel Tennis Festival sets new world record

Four courageous Londoners challenged a world record title attempt for the Longest Marathon Playing Padel in a new padel court in the City of London’s Crescent, EC3 on 25th and 26th September. In a remarkable example of resilience and endurance the players spent two gruelling days completing nearly 40 hours of continuous padel playing.

The players, described as ‘the awesome foursome’ won the admiration of hundreds of spectators and supporters for their sporting prowess and incredible physical resilience.

Nadia Perrier, Director of Central London Alliance C.I.C. and organizer of the attempt said: “I am immensely proud of the players who demonstrated incredible courage and determination but this attempt would not have been possible without the support of many others to whom we extend our heartfelt thanks for their contribution in ensuring London and the City have new world record champions.”

The padel court, installed by Central London Alliance, underwritten by Blue Orchid Hospitality and Global Hospitality Services, partnered with Aldgate Connect BID and the EC BID in order to animate a relatively unknown space near Tower Hill, to provide an added incentive for workers to return to their workplaces and to encourage increased visitors as part of the Destination City ambitions of the City of London Corporation.

Zoe Barwick, BID Director, Speaking on behalf of Aldgate Connect and EC BID, part of the Primera BID portfolio said: “Bringing this incredible event to the first ever Padel Tennis Festival to the eastern part of the City amplifies a very successful placemaking intervention to the world stage and one that people will never forget. For us, connecting people with place through partnership is all important to the future of London and Londoners and this historic achievement is a signal of strength of partnership working which Primera’s BIDs are at the forefront of."

The padel court has been an outstanding success witnessing the highest level of occupancy for all padel courts across the UK; fully booked throughout the summer including on weekends and Bank Holidays and achieving its ambitions of bringing new visitors to the City of London. Led by the CLA, together with its partners, the group arranged free padel coaching sessions and court use for local schools, families, local residents and workers.

The CLA’s initiative, inspiration and creativity, combined with the collaborative endeavours of multiple partners, demonstrated all that’s best about London – its capacity for excellence, its resilience, its innovative thinking and its people, with each of the quartet of players originally from different parts of the world: Ireland, Sweden, Argentina and CLA’s founder and Chairman from London.

Tony Matharu, founding Director of Central London Alliance and Chairman of Blue Orchid Hospitality and also a player of the world record title attempt stated: “As a proud Londoner and a firm believer in the power of partnerhsip working and collaboration, I was delighted to put a global spotlight on the City of London and London more generally as the best place to live, work, invest, visit and study in collaboration with multiple partners including the BIDs and the City of London Corporation. Having invested hundreds of millions of pounds in London, creating many new businesses and employment opportunities and as a Director of a Central London BID, I understand London’s diverse needs and opportunities, the power of collective working and to assist those less fortunate than ourselves. CLA’s intiative is to be applauded and gives added impetus to London’s position as a leading world city, whilst giving back via the National Numeracy, MQ Mental Heath Research and The Duke of Edinburg’s Award on City Giving Day.”

The world record attempt celebrated the end of the first Padel Tennis Festival, which saw a state of the art pop up Padel Court bring the fastest growing sport in the world to the Crescent, City of London.