'I want to see all the people play'- meet the Preston man at the top of British padel Christian Medina Murphy

The sport padel is experiencing a surge in popularity in the UK and Preston is no exception: the first padel court only arrived in 2023 and now there are more than a dozen across multiple clubs.

Whilst you may have noticed the Preston padel boom, you might not be aware that Great Britain’s number one padel player hails from the city.

28-year-old Christian Medina Murphy has been the GB number one men’s padel player since 2019 and whilst he grew up in Medina-Sidonia, south Spain, his family hail from Preston.

Christian’s mother was born in Stockport but moved to Preston as a child, where she attended primary school in Euxton before studying at Winckley Square Convent School.

His father however is Spanish and when Christian was just three years old, the family moved to Spain, where Christian was introduced to padel far earlier than any of his English family members, who are now based in Clayton-le-Woods.

Christian said: “I started playing padel when I was like 15. In Spain, it's quite typical to play because padel is already such a famous sport. It’s typical to have padel courts in your community so at the time, I was competing in tennis and in athleticism at a high leveI but I was living in a community with two paddle courts. I tried padel a few times with my friends and basically I got addicted. I’ve now been playing for 13 years and started playing at a professional level when I was around 18.”

Having given up tennis and athletics to focus on padel, a then 17-year-old Christian joined the Great Britain junior padel squad in 2015.

The team came third in his first ever world championship that November and since then, Christian has been a part of the Great Britain padel team for five world championships and five Euros.

As an individual player, he first competed in the world's premier professional padel circuit aged 19 and now boasts four titles, sitting at number 155 in the world, having reached his highest ever ranking of 103 last year.

Describing how it felt to be named the country’s number one back in 2019, Christian, said “To be honest, it felt really good and being all these years UK number one and represent the UK in all the tournaments, in the professional tour, in the Premier Padel League in London, for me, it's a pleasure, obviously, because to feel you are in in the head of the country in in the sport is amazing.”

Seven years on, Christian admits the competition was very different when he first became number one but rather than lamenting the rise of the sport, he encourages it.

The padel star told the Post: “When I was named number one padel player in the UK, there wasn't anything, like the people was playing only tennis or football or whatever. I think there was maybe 10, 20 courts in all the country.

“It was quite easy because there was not too much players playing in that moment. Now obviously it's getting tougher and tougher, but I've been trying to promote the sport in the UK for the last 13 years.”

Alongside Tom Murray, the Head of Padel at the LTA (Lawn Tennis Association), Christian says he has been “push[ing] and promot[ing] the sport because “we really like our sport so we ARE wishing to try to put more people involved in the sport in the UK.”

Christian has helped host pop-up padel events across the country, including street displays, clinics, exhibitions and tournaments.

Just last month, Christian took part in a free two day padel exhibition at Manchester Padel Club which saw twenty world-class stars of the sport go head-to-head in front of hundreds of fans.

Christian said: “The event was amazing, like to see all the top players of the world in Manchester doing an exhibition. It was completely full, the crowds, I don't know, it was 5/6/700 people there both days watching. It was crazy.”

Christian’s promotional work also extends to his mum’s hometown of Preston, most recently he hosted a night of padel at Padel Republic Preston last month and hopes to return to the venue in October for another.

He said: “I'm trying to to do things in Preston to promote the sport over there, and in October I think I have two or three events there, and I'm trying to do something like an academy or something over there too try to help the community to improve and have nice facilities because obviously all my family are from there, and I want to try to help that area to become an - I don't know how to explain- but I want that area to have potential good players in the future.”

Asked why he wants to see padel grow in the UK, Christian said: “Well, because I'm from there. Like it's so strange because people think I'm Spanish but all my mum’s family- and I spend a lot of time with my mum’s family- are from the UK, I'm from the UK.

“And also, for me as a professional padel player, and for me as a UK number one, if we have more people involved, obviously we have more opportunities, more funding to try to invest in our career.”

Work to promote padel in the UK seems to be working, Christian tells us that two years ago there was around 300 courts in the whole country, and now there is nearly 2000.

His ambition to see the sport grow in the UK does only make his other ambition - retaining his GB number one spot- even harder but that’s a deal he’s happy to contend with.

Describing his ambitions, Christian told us: “Globally I have goals to break the top 100 but I want to try to first of all, stay as a number one [in GB] for the rest of my career… Obviously now it's getting tougher and tougher. I think at the moment I still have margin, but there are people, the younger generation pushing really hard and for me, it's a target to survive and to still be here for as many years as I can. But obviously, it's a pleasure too to see juniors with the really good level and people like Louis Harris, Sam Jones, Alex, they are trying to obviously take my place, but it's nice and it's a pleasure to see how the people are trying to improve and to be professionals. I'm gonna try to survive my whole career here but obviously, it's gonna be tough.”

On the other hand, the growth of padel only helps with his other ambition, Christian continued: “I also really want to see padel as a Olympic sport. I think we are close. I don't know if we're gonna make it but obviously one of my dreams is being in the Olympics representing the UK as a professional player.”

Globally, the International Padel Federation states that there are now 38 million players across 178 countries and territories, supported by a network of 85,000 courts and 27,000 clubs.

The size of the community, plus padel’s presence at major sporting events such as European Games and African Games, means the federation are currently aiming for inclusion in the 2032 Olympic Games.

Asked if there’s any way that people in Preston can support Christian with his career, the sportstar answered: “Well, they can support me only if they play padel, because if the community gets bigger, obviously it's gonna be better for the professional player. They can also follow me on Instagram, obviously it’s good to have a bigger social media page as a professional athlete. But yeah, basically I want to see all the people playing padel there in Preston, and that's it.”

Encouraging Lancastrians to pick up that racket, Christian added: “The padel market is gonna get bigger and bigger t because I think it's a really nice sport for the people. It’s a sport that all the people can practice, it's a really inclusive sport and it's really fun, really social. I think you can see that if you go to clubs, the people like spend a lot of time there because they really enjoy it,so I think it's good sport for the community, basically.

“If you compare padel with tennis, for tennis you have to do a lot of lesson and you need to have a good level to enjoy a match. In padel you're gonna enjoy it from the first lesson, from the first match. You don't have to be an athlete, I think it’s one of these sports that is really easy to start, and from the beginning you are going to enjoy it.”