British padel star Catherine Rose on her strong start to 2024, competing in London & the upcoming European & World Championships
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Less than a year into her professional padel journey, 24-year-old Catherine Rose is making a name for herself as one of Britain’s brightest talents.
Having risen through the ranks playing on the LTA Padel British Tour, Rose is now a regular on the Cupra FIP Tour – the first stage of the international padel circuit – and is driven to continue improving her standing on the world stage.
Rose has had one of the strongest starts to the 2024 season of any British player off the back of impressive performances Down Under at a FIP Rise and FIP Promotion event in Sydney and Melbourne.
Teaming up with fellow Brit Hanna Maddock Gamez, Rose reached her first professional final in Sydney, before a semi-final finish at the home of the Australian Open.
“Australia was an amazing experience,” she said. “The place is amazing – it’s first time I’ve ever been. I loved the lifestyle out there and it was really cool being in Melbourne when the tennis was on.
“The tournaments went better than expected, especially in Sydney. In the opening round we saved two match points which gave us so much confidence in our other matches. Sadly, we didn’t get the result in the final but we were proud of what we achieved none the less!”
The 24-year-old is still very much at the beginning of her padel career, having only picked up the sport a couple of years ago, but the British No.3 has shown great development in just a short period of time.
Rose has now gone from full-time to part-time in her job as a teacher, giving her more time to focus on her game and compete in more international events.
“My padel journey started about two years ago,” Rose explained. “I played tennis as a junior and then got introduced to padel a couple of years about by a friend.
“It was just a hobby at first, but I started entering a few tournaments in Britain and doing quite well.
“I think it was after the World Championship Qualifiers in Derby that I started to feel really motivated. I decided to train more and take it a little more seriously in 2023. Since then, it’s just evolved – I’m now training and competing regularly and just seeing where it goes.
“I haven’t actually played a full year of international events yet. I went part-time with my job from January so now am much more flexible to play many more international events. I’m already loving it and being able to gain so much experience week in week out is really valuable."
I’m definitely targeting the Euros and Worlds. I would love to be involved in the teams for those events.
This week, Rose is set to compete in the first British FIP event of the season at Rocks Lane in Chiswick, London.
Rose will team up with fellow Brit Victoria Nicholas as they aim to become the first Brits to win a FIP Rise title since British No.1 Tia Norton at the inaugural London Padel Open.
“It’s always fun to play at big event in your own country and especially in London,” she said.
“It means lots of friends and family can come and watch and I always just enjoy the atmosphere when playing in England. It always helps to have a bit more support than normal, but saying that, it also comes with a slightly different pressure playing on home soil.
“Last year it was such a fun weekend, so hopefully this year is just as good but with some slightly better results.”
Looking beyond this weekend’s event, 2024 promises to be one of the busiest seasons to date for the British padel stars. More and more players like Rose are competing internationally on a regular basis, but this year will also see the GB team compete in the European Championships in July with the hopes of qualifying for the World Championships in October.
While the focus remains on the next upcoming event, Rose has one eye on what’s still to come this season and would relish the chance to represent her country on the world stage again.
“I’m definitely targeting the Euros and Worlds,” she said. “I would love to be involved in the teams for those events. I think if I’m focusing on training then the results will come and being selected to represent GB is just a product of all the hard work.
“Our team in 2022 at the World Championships has definitely evolved. For example, I was pretty much brand new to the sport and was on the team.
“I think going into the next championships we have a team for the first time that are regularly competing on the international circuit and are all dedicating a lot of time to Padel so hopefully we can be really competitive.
“In terms of other targets, I’m hoping that by the end of the season I’m in the top 150 in FIP rankings. There’s lots of areas of my game I still want to develop, and I don’t think that will ever change. I’m working on my confidence and self-belief all the time.”
