UK PADEL and LTA launch Padel County Cup partnership

More than 300 players took part in the 2025 Open event across counties from Great Britain, turning the UK PADEL County Championships into the largest padel competition ever staged in the UK. That scale is now the foundation for a new strategic partnership with the Lawn Tennis Association, which will rebrand the competition as the Padel County Cup and give it a more formal structure inside the domestic game.

The move matters because it changes the event from a successful niche county competition into something closer to a recognised talent pathway. UK PADEL and the LTA will work together on competition management, promotion and player pathways, with the aim of strengthening county-level participation and giving players a clearer route from county representation into the wider British padel system. The LTA began sanctioning the events in 2025, a step that helped raise the competition’s profile, and this new agreement pushes that support further by tying the County Cup more directly to the national competition framework.

The event itself is not changing identity so much as status. It launched in 2023 and has already become one of the most established team competitions in British padel, with Rocket Padel Bristol remaining its home venue under the new arrangement. That continuity gives counties and clubs a stable base while the LTA backing should help with visibility and governance, two areas that become more important as the field grows and the event’s role in selection and player development becomes more defined.

The first tournament under the Padel County Cup name will be the Over 60s competition from 4-6 September 2026, followed by the Open event from 13-15 November and the inaugural Junior Padel County Cup on 21-22 November. The schedule underlines how the competition is broadening across age groups, from older players to juniors, and how the county format is becoming a more regular part of the padel calendar. For British padel, the real significance is not just a new name, but a clearer ladder between county pride, national structure and the next generation coming through.