Great Britain juniors bow out of FIP Euro Padel Cup qualifiers

Great Britain’s junior padel teams left Porto without reaching the FIP Junior Euro Padel Cup Final 8, but the margins told a more encouraging story than a simple early exit. The boys had already beaten Estonia, Finland and Poland to put themselves within one tie of topping Group D, while the girls split their two matches in a three-team group, beating Czech Republic after an opening loss to Belgium.

The boys’ decisive tie against Denmark turned on the opening U14 rubber, where Tyler Monfillo and Shay Hanif were beaten 6-2, 6-4 by Karl-Emil Angermair and Marius Damgaard Bojesen. Olly Grantham and Harley Dixon then took Denmark deep in the U16 match before falling 7-5, 7-6(3) to Pelle Hansen and Lasse Leiholm. By the time Ben Phillips and Cochise Bennett won the dead U18 rubber 6-1, 6-2, the tie had already gone Denmark’s way. That sequence summed up the whole campaign for the boys: competitive, organised and close enough to matter, but short of the clean sweep needed to advance.

The girls faced a simpler mathematical route, and the opening 3-0 defeat to Belgium put them on the back foot immediately. Rosie Allen and Elizabeth Vellacott gave Great Britain the start they needed with a 6-3, 6-0 win in the U14 rubber, but Chloe de la Mare and Lucy Bertram lost 7-5, 6-4 at U16 and Rosie Quirk and Aimee Connolly were beaten 6-3, 6-4 at U18 to seal the tie for Belgium. Great Britain then responded with a 3-0 win over Czech Republic on Sunday, dropping only four games across the three rubbers, a sharp reminder that the squad could dominate when rhythm and matchups aligned.

That blend of promise and near-misses matters because this was Great Britain’s first appearance in the event, staged at the Padel Athletic Club in Porto from June 27 to July 4, 2026. The qualification phase ran from June 27 to 29, with only the group winners advancing to the Final 8, alongside the teams already assured of places from the 2024 European Championship. The men’s draw had 18 entrants in qualification and the women’s had 15, underlining how crowded the road is from promise to the final stage.

For British junior padel, Porto looked less like a dead end than a benchmark. After the combined boys’ and girls’ debut at the 2025 FIP Junior World Cup in Reus, Spain, these results showed that Great Britain can win ties and trouble stronger nations. The next step is converting those close rubbers, particularly at U14 and U16, into the consistency needed to survive a qualification format that leaves no room for almost.