The Bandeja Magazine Issue 2

feature: Oliver Grantham
If you’re friends with 12-year-old Oliver Grantham, you already know you’re likely to play second
fiddle (or perhaps second bat) to his padel passion. So when his school friends are out having a
kick-about or off to the cinema, Oliver can usually be seen skipping or training at home. “They don’t
mind,” he laughed. “They just know that’s what I do.”
Watching him play is a thing to
behold. He’s secure, focused
and attentive. Not to mention
strong. One gets the impression his
friends couldn’t come between him and
the ball, even if they wanted to.
One of five siblings, Essex-born Oliver has
been a keen tennis player since the age
of five and was representing his county
by the age of eight. When his tennis
academy moved to Brentwood he was
offered the opportunity to try padel at an
open day and was immediately hooked.
When he first picked up that bat,
back in 2020, it was love at first hit.
The skills he’d acquired at tennis made
it very easy for him to progress and
soon he was having weekly one-to-one
sessions. Not long after that Oliver was
awarded what is believed to be the
first padel scholarship to attend
New Hall School in Essex, which
specialises in sports.
“Tennis can be a solitary sport,” his
mum Jayne said. “But padel is much
more of a team effort and there’s lots
of camaraderie off the court. Oliver has
found the transition to padel relatively
easy. There’s a different spin, a different
power shift and being a ‘right-handed
lefty’ makes his backhand stronger
than expected.”
When he’s on the court Oliver says
he feels at ease: “I’m focused and
competitive. I just love it.” These days, he
trains at Stratford Padel Club, London,
with Diego Sterpetti, Jose Alvarez, Richard
Pratt and Javi Aguirre.
“Oliver is, above all, a humble and hardworking
boy, with admirable values,”
said Diego. “In my opinion, if he works
hard – as he has been doing so far –
he will be an excellent padel player.
I feel proud to be able to see him
improve and grow on court and above
all to see how much he enjoys the sport,
which for us is our main objective.”
Due to the lack of available players
his age, Oliver doesn’t have a regular
partner but teams up with, in Jayne’s
words, ‘whoever’s nice enough to partner
with him’.
Junior challenge
But, increasingly, UK padel is not enough
for Oliver. Even though one of his big
goals is to represent the UK and ‘wear
the shirt’, he has his eyes on the world
tour, despite his irritation that the UK
doesn’t have an active youth team.
“Watching the junior European Padel
Championships was so frustrating
knowing I could have been there,”
he said. In the absence of junior
tournaments Oliver contents himself by
thrashing adults at the club. “I don’t feel
patronised. They’re happy enough to
play me as an equal and they’re nice
enough to not mind being beaten by
a kid,” he laughed. One of his brothers
has started to play regularly, so he does
at least have someone to play with.
“Though I might not like that so much
if he starts getting better than me,”
he said cheerfully.
Mum Jayne feels there’s not enough
attention on the sport at junior level in
the UK. “It’s expensive. Richard Brooks
[the first Brit to make the World Padel
Tour top 100 rankings] who is making
a professional comeback, has offered
some good supportive advice but
we need more sport-related
charities to get involved and more
celebrity endorsements.”
Oliver agrees: “Padel is definitely going
to be huge in the UK but we need more
people to realise that.”
Of course, in Spain, where Oliver’s
just been training, padel is already huge.
“I looked out of our apartment window
and just saw loads of courts,” Oliver
sighed, happily, “I’d love to
spend more time out there and do
regular coaching.”
Oliver, who’s sponsored by Head,
recently jumped on court with World
Padel Tour legend Roby Gattiker, which,
he said, ‘was one of the most amazing
experiences. He hit the ball really flat and
hard and made the court feel really big’.
And, though there might not be an
active junior UK team to be part of yet,
Oliver isn’t resting on his laurels. It’s
hard not to see how this driven
youngster won’t make it far in the sport.
He recently won the Stratford Padel
Tournament with his (adult) partner
Santi Barcariza Perez and is ready for
the next challenge. •
WINTER 2023
49