The Circuit

The lead note

On Friday the LTA named the eight players who will represent Great Britain at the women's World Cup in Doha, led by Aimee Gibson and Catherine Rose. It is, the LTA says, the squad that qualified in Madrid with one change: Tia Norton returns after recovering from injury. The LTA describes it as Great Britain's first appearance in the women's finals since 2021. There is no British men's team; the men went out in the last round of qualifying.

Libby Fletcher, the women's captain, in the LTA's announcement: "Qualifying for the World Cup Finals was a proud achievement for this group of women, and we're looking forward to representing Great Britain on the biggest stage in padel."

Last week we wrote that the Federation had published no draw and no schedule. It has now published the schedule, and it has said when the draw happens. The tournament is at the Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex. It opens on Sunday 1 November with a ceremony, at which the first-round groups are drawn. Each draw has sixteen teams in four groups of four, and each tie is the best of three matches. The groups are played from Monday 2 to Wednesday 4 November. The top two in each group go through to the quarter-finals on Thursday 5 November, the semi-finals are on Friday 6, and on Saturday 7 the third-place ties are played in the morning and the finals after them. The women's matches start at two in the afternoon, local time, and the men's at six.

So Britain learns its group on Sunday. The Federation lists Spain's women as the defending champions, from Doha two years ago.

On the tour

On Saturday, in the final of the FIP Gold in Melilla, Raquel Eugenio and Bea Caldera beat Veronica Virseda and Martina Fassio 6-3, 6-4. In the men's final Jairo Bautista and Lucas Bergamini beat Juan Tello and Maxi Arce 6-1, 6-4. The Federation counts it as Eugenio's seventh title on its tour this year, and notes that she used to play with Fassio.

In Taunton, at the weekend's FIP Bronze, the men's title went to Dani Luna and Pedro Melendez, who had won in Alkmaar a week before. They took the final 6-1, 4-6, 7-5.

We also owe you a weekend. Last Monday several results from the weekend of 17 and 18 October were not yet published; they now are. The largest was the FIP Gold in Seville, where Virginia Riera and Julieta Bidahorria beat the top seeds, Lucia Sainz and Leti Manquillo, 6-2, 6-4, the same score as their semi-final. The Federation lists Seville as their third title, after Nairobi and Houten. Riera, in its Spanish report: «Nuestras rivales han jugado muy bien, pero estamos muy contentas con nuestro juego durante este fin de semana». In our English: "Our opponents played very well, but we are very happy with how we played this weekend." The men's final went to Victor Ruiz and Facundo Lopez, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, against the top seeds, Nacho Piotto and Javi Barahona, who had won at Stratford the weekend before.

At the Bronze events the same weekend: in Alkmaar, Justine Pysson and Elyne Boeykens beat Elsa Terranova and Angelina Neizvestnaya 7-5, 6-2, and Dani Luna and Pedro Melendez won the men's title; in Cebu, Sandra Bellver and Alba Gallardo beat Kotomi Ozawa and Anastasiia Ryzhova 6-4, 6-2, and Pablo Landaburu and Antonio Varo won the men's; in Oeiras, Cristina Carrascosa and Marisol Fernandez won the women's title 6-2, 6-0, and Pedro Graca and Pedro Araujo the men's; in Cotonou, Patricia Ribeiro and Mafalda Marques won the women's title 6-4, 6-4.

The week ahead

The Major in Kuwait began on Sunday with the men's draw; the women's draw begins today. Alejandra Salazar and Aranzazu Osoro are the eighth seeds, so Milan, which we wrote about last week, was not her last tournament entry. They have not yet played: whether they do, and how far, is for next Monday. The Federation's draw puts them in line to meet Paula Josemaria and Bea Gonzalez in the quarter-finals.

Also in Kuwait, the Federation's Asia and Africa qualifier begins today and runs to Friday 30 October. It decides the last places in the World Cup draws. The Federation has published the entrants, thirteen women's teams and fourteen men's, in four groups each, and we will not name a team before it has played.

From the club

Issue Four of The Alborán, dated 6 October, is the current issue, and Episode Four of The Sessions, "Padel Drive", the current episode.

See you at the club.

How this was compiled. Every source behind this edition, and what we took from each.