Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) Chief Executive Roger Draper has welcomed Sport England’s announcement that they will be supporting tennis clubs across the country through their Inspired Facilities fund.
More than 30 tennis venues are set to benefit as Sport England announced an investment of £16.6 million in National Lottery funding to 310 sports groups in England.
The investments will be used to improve tennis clubs’ facilities, from building new courts to constructing changing rooms and clubhouses.
Roger Draper said: “I’d like to thank Sport England for their continued support in making tennis a game for everyone, and in getting more people playing tennis, more often.
“This is a really exciting time for our sport, and better, year-round facilities will help British tennis to provide those people inspired to play with a really enjoyable experience, and turn them into lifelong players.”
Sport England’s Chief Executive, Jennie Price, said: “We have had such a fantastic response from sports clubs to Inspired Facilities that we’ve reached our target of making 1,000 grants a year early. Demand remains strong so will offer a further £20 million of funding over the next 15 months.”
One of the tennis clubs to be awarded funding from today’s announcement is St Agnes Tennis Club in Truro, Cornwall.
Tennis players at St Agnes have already seen the benefit that Sport England funding can make to their facilities after receiving Whole Sport Plan funding for new floodlights two years ago.
The club have now been awarded £50,000 towards the cost of a new clubhouse which will upgrade the changing facilities at the site.
St Agnes club secretary Wendy Evans said: “We’re delighted and extremely grateful that the funding has been awarded.
“Since we installed the floodlights, the number of people playing regularly at the club has improved greatly because they can now play during the winter months.
“The new club house will allow us to expand even more and give people further opportunities to play tennis."