Britain's Christian Medina Murphy wins on Olympia centre court as the UK's first Premier Padel P1 opens

Christian Medina Murphy gave the home crowd its first win to celebrate at Britain's first Premier Padel event. The British men's No.1 and his Spanish partner Alberto Garcia beat qualifiers Agustin Gutierrez and Santino Giuliani 6-2, 6-2 on the Olympia centre court, and the wildcard pair barely let their opponents settle.

A home debut at Olympia

Premier Padel had never staged an event in the UK before this week. The London P1 runs from 4 to 9 August inside Olympia's Grand Hall in west London, with a prize pool of about 474,500 euros and the full top tier of the men's and women's game in town. For Medina Murphy, on a home wildcard, a straight-sets win on the main show court is the kind of moment British padel has been chasing for years.

What's next

The reward is a jump in class. Medina Murphy and Garcia now face the No.10 seeds, Argentina's Juan Tello and Maxi Arce, in the next round on the same court. A win there would push the British-Spanish pair deeper into their home P1.

It wasn't a clean day for every British hopeful. Wildcards Aimee Gibson and Catherine Rose went out of the women's draw, losing 6-1, 7-6 to Alix Collombon and Ksenia Sharifova. The marquee names are still to come: top seeds Arturo Coello and Agustin Tapia, and second seeds Alejandro Galan and Federico Chingotto, headline the draw as the week builds toward Sunday's finals.