On her senior GB debut, Guernsey’s 16-year-old padel starlet joined the likes of British No 1 Aimee Gibson as the team defeated Norway, Serbia, and finally Poland at the FIP World Cup 2026 Europe Qualifier without losing a match.
The Guernsey teenager and partner Victoria Nicholas squeezed past the Norwegian pairing 7-6, 6-4 before an easier 6-1, 6-4 win against the Serbian duo in the group stages in Spain.
After receiving a bye to the final round of the qualifiers, de la Mare and Nicholas out-battled the top Polish pair 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 in a 1hr 51min. slog to complete their unbeaten run.
World top-100 player Gibson, who dropped just three games in as many matches alongside Catherine Rose, was ‘super proud’ of GB’s new recruit.
‘Not only is she 16 and it’s her first time, she was undefeated all weekend and showed such a high level,’ Gibson said.
‘Also, to be able to perform under that pressure in that final match to secure our spot in the World Cup is, for me, just really inspiring to watch.
‘I’ve obviously seen her from the start and to be able to deal with that sort of pressure when she hasn’t really played in those circumstances before in front of all of your team and all of the opponents, it was just amazing.
‘It’s just the start for her and I think it will give her a lot of confidence going forward.’
The other GB pairing, Abigail Tordoff and Lisa Phillips, dominated their matches against Norway and Serbia.
Any pressure de la Mare had felt in GB’s final match had been hidden well.
‘I can’t believe that we ended up getting the match that put GB through, but it was a whole-team effort and Aimee and Catherine had a good match before that as well to put GB 1-0 up,’ the youngster said.
Naturally, she had relished the opportunity to represent GB at this level.
‘I really enjoyed the experience of competing as a team, and spending a week training and competing with everyone has been really fun and getting to know them all better – also to have Iciar [Montes] coaching.
‘I loved playing with Vic and I think the partnership is going really well so far.
‘We have a few tournaments coming up together and would definitely like to play more in the future together, as she is so good and such a fun partner.’
Germany are the other team to have come through the Europe qualifier ahead of the FIP World Cup, which takes place in Doha, Qatar, from 2-7 November.
