For most of my life, tennis was my world. I grew up in a sport that demanded discipline, independence and resilience. Week after week I travelled the world chasing ranking points, competing on some of the biggest stages in tennis - including The Championships, Wimbledon. At one point I reached No. 72 in the world, something I had worked towards since I first picked up a racket as a kid.

Tennis shaped me as an athlete and as a person. But it also shaped how I experienced the sport - especially when it came to life on tour. Professional tennis can be a very solitary environment. You travel alone, compete alone and spend most of your time inside your own bubble. At tournaments it’s not unusual to pass your opponent in the hallway without more than a quick nod. Everyone is focused on their own performance, their own rankings and their own results.

Then I discovered padel. At first, the biggest challenge was actually technical. In tennis, there is one instinct that gets drilled into you from the very beginning: never let the ball go past you. If the ball gets behind you, the point is over.

So the first time someone told me on a padel court, “Let the ball go and play it off the wall,” it felt completely wrong. Every instinct I had built over decades in tennis told me to run forward and take the ball before it reached the glass.

Learning to trust the walls took time. In the beginning it almost felt like I was breaking a rule I had followed my entire career. But slowly the walls stopped feeling like a threat and started becoming a tool. That’s when the game really started to open up for me.

But the biggest difference between tennis and padel isn’t actually the walls. It’s the atmosphere. From the moment you arrive at a padel club or tournament, the energy is different. The courts are close together, people stay and watch each other play, and there’s a natural social element around the sport. You warm up together, you chat between matches, and it’s not unusual to end the day having dinner or a drink with the same players you competed against.

Coming from the tennis world, that felt refreshing. Padel keeps the competitive spirit that I love about sport, but it adds something else - connection. The sport naturally brings people together, both on and off the court.

That’s also one of the reasons I love working with Padel Travel X. Padel trips combine two of the best things about this sport: improving your game and sharing the experience with others. You train together, play together, travel together and create an environment where the social side of padel becomes just as important as the competition.

For someone like me, who spent years in the very individual world of professional tennis, that community aspect is something truly special. Looking back, my transition from tennis to padel wasn’t just about adapting my game.

It was about discovering a different way of experiencing sport. A way where competition, travel and community come together - both on and off the court.