Aimee Gibson and Catherine Rose open Britain's home P1 against Collombon and Sharifova

Aimee Gibson and Catherine Rose start their London P1 on Tuesday evening, drawn against France's Alix Collombon and Ksenia Sharifova in the women's first round at Olympia.

A home wildcard, and a comeback

The British pair go in on a main-draw wildcard from the LTA, and for Gibson it doubles as a return. She's been sidelined for five months with injury. "It means the world," she said when the wildcards were confirmed. "I'm super grateful to the LTA that, even though I've been injured for five months, they've still put me forward for the main draw." Rose and Gibson are two of Britain's leading players and have partnered on the FIP tour, hovering around the world top 100. This is the biggest home stage British women's padel has had.

The match

Collombon and Sharifova are the harder read. Collombon is a seasoned tour regular with plenty of P1 main-draw miles, so the French pair will fancy their chances. The match is scheduled not before 19:30 local time, closing the opening day of main-draw play. Win it and the wildcards move into a second round that is likely to bring one of the seeded pairs.

Context

London is Premier Padel's first stop in Britain, running August 4 to 9 at Olympia. The women's main draw holds 28 pairs, with the seeds waiting a round for the wildcards and qualifiers to clear the way.