England's tennis courts in first decline this century as padel surges sixfold

England has lost 183 tennis courts since 2023 — the first fall since records began around 2000, per Guardian analysis of Sport England data. Padel courts rose from 382 to over 2,200 in the same window. A net 77 tennis courts closed at venues that added padel. Tennis still outnumbers padel 11 to one. The LTA says courts replaced by padel account for 0.3% of the total.