This weekend sees the culmination of the ECTA Champions League in Men’s and Women’s University Tennis with the finals being staged at Gosling.
Having come through earlier qualifying rounds, there will be eight men’s and seven women’s teams playing for the ECTA Champion’s title, a considerable feat given that only three years ago the sole ECTA event was a men’s invitational with eight teams from across Europe.
The participants are drawn from all over Europe including France, Ireland and Croatia and the BUCS tennis teams taking part are expecting the standard of tennis to be extremely high.
Teams competing this weekend in the men’s event will be Pula, Croatia, Dublin, Stirling, Leeds, Manchester, Rouen, Loughborough and Oxford and in the Women’s event it will be Loughborough, Bath, Dublin, Exeter, Rouen, London Met and Leeds Met.
Key figures in British Tennis have endorsed the event and strongly support the work of organisers Euan McGinn of Stirling University and Jamie Pilkington of Dublin City University.
Roger Draper, Chief Executive of the LTA, said: “We’re committed to growing the game and supporting more young people to achieve their potential in tennis. For many talented youngsters wanting to combine tennis and education, university tennis can be a great option. That’s why the LTA is supporting a number of scholarship programs at UK universities, and also offers support to top British players based around the world.
The LTA is also happy to back the European Collegiate Tennis Association (ECTA Tennis), which offers European university tennis players opportunities to compete across Europe."
Judy Murray is equally enthusiastic. “The ECTA Euro League presents the perfect opportunity for tennis-playing students to compete internationally in a top level team event. It’s a great addition to the student tennis calendar”.
Colin Fleming, who graduated from Stirling University and looks set to break into the top 50 in ATP doubles and is currently at 52, commented. “A European University League provides a great platform for players to improve their games and learn to compete at senior level before turning professional, all whilst earning a degree to benefit them in later life”.
There has been a huge effort involved in establishing and maintaining new events such as this but it must be also noted that there has been a huge increase in standard in European University Tennis which very much justifies the existence of these types of events.
The organisers would like to thank their supporters and their key role in bringing together robust plans for the event. In particular, Barclays and Gosling High Performance Centre, which offers every type of tennis player the opportunity to reach their competitive potential.