News, Sport

Nottingham Tennis Centre to build three new padel courts after sport’s popularity triples

By Latifa Yedroudj, Junior Local Democracy Reporter

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Nottingham Tennis Centre is expanding its padel tennis facilities after the sport’s popularity more than trebled in a year.

The Lawn Tennis Association (LTA), which runs the centre, is planning to convert an existing tennis court into three new padel tennis courts.

The facility on University Boulevard, Lenton, is the largest public tennis centre in Great Britain, with 40 courts.

Padel tennis is a racquet sport similar to tennis, but played on smaller courts and usually in doubles. Players can use the walls of a court to hit shots, similarly to squash.

The plans for the new courts at the centre were submitted in April this year, and were approved on Thursday, June 5.

An existing hard-surfaced tennis court, in south-west of the site, will be transformed into three covered padel tennis courts. Each will measure about 8.85 metres, or 29 feet, in height .

Figures released today by the LTA itself in May showed at the end of 2024, just over 400,000 adults and juniors in Great Britain played padel at least once in the previous 12 months – up from 15,000 in 2019, 89,000 in 2021, and 129,000 at the end of 2023.

The new courts will look the same as three padel tennis courts already at the centre, located at the north of the site, and won’t be visible from the main road.

Padel tennis courts at the centre have become extremely popular which is why more courts are being added, documents say.

They read: “The proposal to provide three further padel courts would help diversify the existing provision at the Nottingham Tennis Centre, reacting to the popularity that the padel courts have generated.”

The LTA took over the running of the centre from Nottingham City Council in 2022, saying it was a “strategically important site” for British tennis.