Team England finished 2nd Overall

Foro Italico was the amazing location for the 2nd European Pickleball Championships. The main arena was surrounded by Roman statues depicting Olympic sports. FITP – The Federation of Tennis and Padel (and now pickleball) were fantastic hosts of the Championships in the capital city, Rome. The clay tennis courts were overlaid with wood and 30 acrylic roll up courts installed for the event. The weather was extremely hot but that didn’t put off the entourage of supporters each team had to create the atmosphere. Team England had it’s own army of supporters including two PbE National Directors taking their respective holiday with their spouses to coincide with the event.

Championship Format

EPC2025 was again a team-based format, with Singles added this year. There can be a maximum of 16 players per team, including both genders and two age groups: Open and Seniors (50+ years).

The competition consisted of three formats: Men’s and Women’s singles, Men’s and Women’s doubles, and Mixed doubles.

EPC2025 consisted of 10 Events:

OPEN Category (Any Age)

Men’s Singles (Friday) – Gold = England; Silver = Poland; Bronze = Italy
Women’s Singles (Friday) – Gold = Netherlands; Silver = Italy; Bronze = Germany
Men’s Doubles (Saturday) – Gold = Austria; Silver = Spain; Bronze = Poland
Women’s Doubles (Saturday) – Gold = Spain; Silver = England; Bronze = Italy
Mixed Doubles (Sunday) – Gold = Spain; Silver = Italy; Bronze = Sweden

SENIOR Category (Age 50+)

Men’s Singles (Friday) – Gold = Spain; Silver = Switzerland; Bronze = Germany
Women’s Singles (Friday) – Gold = Italy; Silver = England; Bronze = Netherlands
Men’s Doubles (Saturday) – Gold = Spain; Silver = Sweden; Bronze = Switzerland
Women’s Doubles (Saturday) – Gold = England; Silver = Spain; Bronze = Serbia
Mixed Doubles (Sunday) – Gold = Spain; Silver = Italy; Bronze = Sweden

Ceremonies

The Opening Ceremony took place on Friday 19th September. Again it was an amazing ceremony and surprisingly emotional!

Teams marched into the venue dressed in their playing kit in formation behind the flag-bearer of their national flag. Team England proudly wore their England Kit kindly supplied by Skechers.

Medal Distribution occurred each day, immediately after the last matches and National Anthems were played for the Gold medal winners.

Trophies were awarded for the overall winners of Open & Senior events.

On Friday Team England received the trophy for overall Men’s Singles and Italy won the overall Women’s Singles trophy.

On Saturday Team England received the trophy for overall Women’s Doubles and Spain won the overall Men’s Doubles.

On Sunday Spain won the overall Mixed Doubles trophy.

The President’s Trophy will be awarded to the Country with the highest number of points in all categories. It was an honour for Team England to win the trophy in 2024. This year England came second to Spain who won an amazing 4 Gold medals (3 of them involved Marcello Jardim) and 3 Silver medals.

For more information on results click here.

Link to the Official Photos from the 2025 EPC.

Meet this year's Team England

There are some familiar faces that were part of last year’s successful European Pickleball Championship performance. There are also some exciting new faces. The teams have been getting together to train and develop strong team dynamics and tactics.

With the addition of Singles to the events there are more medal opportunities spread across nations. With 10 events instead of 6, the medal pool widens. Other countries will have more chances to score points, especially if they have strong singles players. Team England have some great singles players too!

Team Manager - Elaine Shallcross BEM

OPEN TEAM

Thaddea Lock is this year’s Open team Captain and James Chaudry the Vice Captain. This pair won the Mixed Doubles Final at last year’s Championships. They are joined by their team mates Louis Laville, Mollie Knaggs and Molly O’Donoghue. This team were rock solid last year and we expect the same this year when they are joined by Katie Morris, Freddie Powell and Ben Cawston.

Last year’s Team Coach Sam Basford is in the Maldives for a pickleball coaching trip (co-incidentally around his birthday). This year’s Team Coach will bring a lot of energy and enthusiasm to the team and his Italian may come in handy since the event is in Rome!

Team Coach – Pep Giuliano

SENIOR TEAM

Richard Love is the Team Captain and Anna Linton Vice Captain for this year’s Championship. The rock steady team that won the Gold in the Senior Mixed Doubles. Only David Youngs returns from last year’s team since many of the team were unavailable due to other commitments (In Julie Mac’s case The Maldives with Sam Basford).

Rupert Robinson and Nathan Hill join the men’s squad and Claire Bourgoin, Kirsty Gray and Helen Kenna join the women’s squad. We can’t wait to see what this team can do in Rome!

Rob Williams is back as the Team Coach for the Senior team. He will be making sure he has done his homework on the players from other countries that the team will encounter and provide some valuable insights and motivation.

Team Coach – Rob Williams