Players, coaches and local school children headed to the DFS Classic in Birmingham on Friday in support of ‘Think Pink’, the LTA’s initiative to encourage young girls onto the nation’s tennis courts.
Although plenty of girls play tennis, the ratio of boys to girls who are involved in the sport competitively in Britain stands at 3:1, the LTA is proactively looking to raise awareness of women in tennis, and in sport in general.
Think Pink day saw eight of Warwickshire’s best nine to 11-year-old players take to centre court for a demonstration of their impressive tennis skills, supervised by LTA National Coach and Think Pink ambassador, Claire Curran.
“It’s an amazing opportunity for the girls to experience a professional tennis tournament and see what it’s like on a show court,” said Curran. “It’s such a valuable experience for them to have at this age, to be part of the event and experience the game at this level.
“When I was a junior I didn’t have the opportunity to be involved in such a big tennis tournament but I can remember even visits to small tournaments had a huge impact on me and back then I was so inspired by being around professional players.”
Curran said Think Pink was designed to encourage girls to start playing tennis and to stick with the game. “We have to sell women’s tennis in a very different way to men’s tennis,” said Curren. “We’re looking to bring out the glamorous side of the game and really tap into what appeals to girls growing up these days.”
Think Pink activities will continue on Saturday when LTA National Coach Judy Murray conducts a grass court coaching clinic for six of Great Britain’s best 10-year-olds at the DFS Classic.
The girls, Maia Lumsden, Lidia Burrows, Anastasia Mikheeva, Livvy Tomkins, Alexandra Herd, Eden Richardson, were all selected after outstanding performances at national Talent ID days. Saturday’s clinic will provide them with the opportunity to get close to big-name tennis stars and experience a major tennis event early in their playing careers.
While in Birmingham the girls will work on grass court tactics and play a mini tournament. They will watch the semi finals and learn how to chart matches, take a peek behind the scenes at the player areas of the tournament and take part in a mock press conference with one of the semi finalists.
“Hopefully this will hopefully inspire them to work hard and to begin to understand what life is like on the pro circuit,” said Murray.
“We have a really good crop of girls born in 1998, so I'm also looking to run a number of training camps at Roehampton over the winter and to set up lots of competitive opportunities overseas in the form of training matches so the girls start to get a feel for travelling outside the country to compete.”
LTA head coach of women’s tennis, Nigel Sears, leant Think Pink his full support saying, “Tennis is a healthy outdoor sport and we really want to see more girls play the game and we’re trying to encourage younger girls to take up tennis and enjoy competition.
“The Tennis Foundation is trying to revamp the parks and playing facilities around the country and to make the sport more accessible and cheaper to play.
“By inviting some of our best young players here to Birmingham to play we hope to inspire them and encourage them to stick with the sport.”