A roundup of the 2024 Padel Senior World Championship

This was the 3rd Senior World Championships and saw the competition opened up to the largest number of competitors to date. At the last event the men had been playing for the wooden spoon on the final day, so our aspirations ahead of this championship were to do better than that!

The very first match of the GB campaign was our most important of the week against an unknown Finland Team which we narrowly lost 2-3. There were early wins for the over 35s, 40s following the early defeat by Finland. Injury plagued the over 50s and 55s unfortunately, meaning Team GB were now playing for a 17-24 place.

A strong performance against the Czech team, which included the football legend in Jan Koller, resulted in a 3-2 win for GB. The over 55s were then facing a tough game against Uruguay, starting strong with an 8-5 lead in the match tie break. The Uruguayan Team fought hard to retake the lead, winning 8-10.

Late wins from the over 40s and 45s meant the deciding match for Team GB went to the over 35s. A real battle with emotions running high saw GB lose the first set 1-6. GB came out strong taking the second set. Despite the fantastic performance, the third set was lost 4-6 meaning Team GB would finish 19 out of 24 teams.

Overall, the Senior World Championships was hard fought with great team spirit from all involved.

On a personal note, I played in all 5 team matches and won 4, beating the Finnish 35s, Czech 45s, Uruguayan 45s and Egyptian 45s, losing only to the Mexican 35s. This was one of my strongest performances, and it felt like the additional time I’ve been spending on court at Rocket Bristol paid off.

A big thank you to BJP for the sponsorship.

 Let’s go GB!

Ben Gudzelak, GB Men’s Padel Team Captain