the tennis traitor.

my playtomic bio says “tennis traitor”.

And honestly, sometimes I do feel a bit guilty about it.

Because tennis gave me a lot.

I mean genuinely, it felt like a gift entering my life at the time. I still remember my very first lesson so clearly. Every detail. Every moment.

That night, hours later, I couldn’t sleep.

I felt legally high.

It was honestly some of the most fun I’d had in years and I remember lying there thinking:
oh no… this might become a problem.

After a few lessons, just enough to make sure I wasn’t a complete embarrassment, I joined a beginners group. Wednesday nights. Eight ladies and a whole lot of chaos.

But the vibes were elite.

We were there every single week, regardless of weather, and before long it became the highlight of my week. Then gradually, tennis started consuming my life.

Monday was a lesson.
Tuesday was ladies social.
Wednesday was group coaching.
Thursday I’d practise serves on my lunch break.
Friday was team training.

I couldn’t get enough.

But trying to play outdoor tennis consistently in Manchester is an absolute liability.

Coaches changed. Friends moved clubs. Socials became quieter. Organising games got harder and harder.

And when I did play, I wasn’t happy with my level.

Tennis is brutal like that. If I’m not playing consistently, everything falls apart. Timing gone. Confidence gone. Serve gone. Entire personality gone.

Then one Christmas my coach went away for a month and I thought:
right, I’ve got a window here to try padel.

So I did.

And then I played again.
And again.
And again.

Suddenly I could get games whenever I wanted. Morning, lunchtime, evenings, 6am, 10pm. Within 20 minutes I had about ten clubs I could play at.

Instead of begging people to come and play, we were fighting over court bookings.

And the social side completely blindsided me.

At the end of matches people would say:
“message me if you want a rematch.”
“What are you doing tomorrow?”
“Fancy a drink after?”

Padel felt… easy. Not the sport itself, definitely not that. But access to it. Community. Consistency.

The return on investment was so much higher.

I could play for an hour and my back didn’t hurt afterwards.
Which, frankly, felt revolutionary.

Now the funny thing is, everyone says:
“if you can play tennis, you can play padel.”

I would just like to publicly state that I found this to be absolute propaganda.

Honestly, all tennis really helped me with was the scoring.

Everything else felt impossible.

No prep on forehands?
Underarm serves?
What do you mean the glass is IN?
Why is everybody lobbing me every six seconds?
Why does finishing a point take four working days?

Oh, and the glass.

The bloody glass.

I hated it.

In tennis I was used to trying to hit big shots and finish points quickly. In padel, power is often your enemy. Suddenly I needed patience. Soft hands. More patience. Lobs. Angles. More patience again.

And then a whole collection of Spanish words I still don’t fully understand.

But despite all of that… I was hooked.

Every clean strike felt like a dopamine hit.

At some point I spotted my tennis friend Cristina on Playtomic and we kept saying we should arrange a game. Eventually we did.

She absolutely annihilated me.

I had conveniently forgotten about her Spanish heritage and soon became a victim of her signature shot:
“the flying falcon.”

A shot I still believe should probably be investigated by authorities.

Afterwards, Cristina pointed out something funny. We’d both played tennis for years, but despite being at neighbouring clubs and in rival teams, we’d actually never once played together.

We were always opponents.

Padel changes that.

The person who beats you one day becomes your partner the next. And honestly, I think that’s part of why people fall in love with it so quickly.

Cristina is now a loyal member of the 6am club, which means she is either incredibly committed or deeply unwell. Possibly both.

But if you’re going to stand on a freezing court at 6 in the morning, you need good energy around you. And she has it in buckets.

Or cubos.
I think.

These days our partnership is slightly unconventional. Cristina deals with the evil glass at the back while I loiter around the net waiting for something high enough to smash into next Tuesday.

I still love tennis.
I always will.

But trying to switch constantly between tennis and padel was slowly making me terrible at both.

So for now at least…

I’m fully addicted to padel x