News

🎾 Flying the flag for NLTC! 🎾

Huge congratulations to Anna Zuka, Amy Flynn and Katie Nolan, who all competed at the FIP Silver Hiscox Padel Irish Open in Dublin last week reaching the last 16 on the international stage.

The rankings are all going in the right direction: Anna is now World No. 431, Amy World No. 671 and Katie World No. 792, all three climbing the world rankings this summer. 📈 Great progress in just approx 3 years of padel at Naas LTC.

Brilliant to see NLTC players competing and improving at this level. 

FIP Silver R3 Bull Padel Cup, Belfast (Padel54, Moira, 1 - 5 July)

Anna Zuka partnered Spain's Alba Payeras Soler (Underdog Padel - Youtube channel, check it out!), where they met world no.104 Catherine Rose and no.108 Aimee Gibson a top-150 British pairing who won in two sets, recently reached the Final of the Irish Open last week and are not back inside the Worlds Top 100. Valuable experience against elite opposition and further FIP points banked on home-island soil. Similar experience for Amy, without her trusty partner Katie for this FIP managed to play with the other half of Underdog Padel and came up against Tia Norton, GB number 3 and her partner the Portuguese No. 2 Catarina Santos Domingos who proved too strong for them at this point.  

FIP Silver Hiscox Padel Irish Open, Dublin (Star Padel, Templeogue, 15 - 19 July)

Amy Flynn & Katie Nolan reached the last 16, defeating Marjorie Croke and Moya Ryan 6-0 6-0;  This is also a good measure of the progress being made: when Amy and Katie last met the same pair around a year ago, they won 6-1 6-4. This time? 6-0 6-0. A full year of consistent training and matchplay, right there in the scoreline. 2 years ago? Marjorie and Moya won.

They then faced Brazilian No. 1, world No. 66 Raquel Pilthcer & Greek No 1.CHristina-Stliani Ntanou in the last 16, putting in a strong performance in the second set losing out 6-0 6-2.

Anna Zuka & Abby Ombler-Truran came from a set down to win their last-16 match 2-6 6-3 6-4 against Rosie Pooley and Claudette Gilhespie, before falling to Cortiles (career high 28, now 157)/Bellver Fructuoso (career high 44, now 63) the pair who went on to reach the semi-finals.

Irish Padel Tour Rankings Update

The domestic rankings underline the strength of NLTC's representation at the top of the women's game. Anna Zuka leads the Irish Padel Tour on 11,000 points, with Amy Flynn at No. 3 (9,300) and Katie Nolan at No. 5 (7,100). NLTC coach Anna Kurkul also features at No. 4 (8,700). That's four of the top five places on the women's Irish Padel Tour with an NLTC connection.

Next Up: Cork IPT

All 4 are all in action again this weekend at the Irish Padel Tour event in Cork with Anna Zuka pairing with Karen Nugent and they will await the first round winners of Anna Kurkul & Laia Raigal v Marjorie Croke & Moya Ryan. Amy and Katie are continuing their strong partnership and positioned on the opposite side of draw to Anna & Anna hopefully setting up a great weekend of competition. That is unless Sara Cruz Monge has anything to do it. Sara pairing up with a new partner Fiona French in both the Open and Intermediate categories. And best of luck to Alan Gleeson in the Mens Intermediate.