A keen tennis, squash and racketball player from the age of five, originally playing at Ilkley, Peter has represented Yorkshire in seniors county tennis for the last 20 years, served as tennis director at Huddersfield LTSC for three years and as chairman for nine years (both voluntary positions).
After discovering and starting to play padel in Spain in the early ‘noughties’, he was responsible for introducing the sport of padel into the UK in 2011 with the first ever pay-and-play facility at Huddersfield LTSC
Peter competes regularly in seniors on the LTA Padel tour, and has represented GB at European and World championships. He helped to form the UK governing body British Padel, which was voluntarily operated until 2019. At this stage there were around 50 courts in the UK
British Padel was incorporated into the control of the LTA in May 2019 to follow the successful up-scaling of the sport demonstrated by other EU nations who have strategically allied themselves to their respective nation’s governance of tennis.
Co-director Tom Murray is now employed by the LTA as head of padel. During 2024, the number of padel courts in the UK reached 1,000 and since then the number of adults and juniors playing the sport has topped 1 million.
Peter has been volunteering in Yorkshire Tennis, with padel-specific responsibilities for several years and am also the county’s LTA Councillor.
Contact: peter.vann@icloud.com
