LTA reaffirms commitment to British university tennis and padel with £1.6m funding

The total funding support for the next cycle to the end of the 2028-29 academic year amounts to £1.6m, representing an increase of 15 per cent from the previous funding cycle. LTA funding will be match-funded by universities, unlocking a further £1.6m for university tennis setups to invest across their programmes of work.

The funding will be spread across the LTA’s partner universities, the number of which is set to grow from 32 to 50 nationwide by the end of the cycle. Partner universities have become key elements of British tennis, not just in producing players competing on the ATP and WTA Tours, but also in developing the next generation of tennis coaches and administrators, and playing a vital role in facility development for tennis and padel.

The next funding cycle from 2026 to 2029 will prioritise the growth of people-focused programmes at universities, homing in on projects that: grow participation among students and wider communities; grow the tennis and padel workforce across coaching, administration, and facility management; and enhance competitions at all levels of the student game.

Will Roberts, CEO of British Universities and Colleges Sport (BUCS) said, “We are delighted to see the ongoing investment of the LTA into University Tennis through to 2029. This investment provides BUCS member universities the confidence that they are making a difference to participation levels and supporting the development of the next generation of leaders in the sport.

“Thanks to our collaboration with the LTA, BUCS has one of the world's premier University Tennis programmes and this will continue as a result of this extended partnership and investment directly into Universities and students.”

Recent milestones reached within the most recent cycle of funding include the introduction of a new BSc Applied Sports Studies in Tennis degree at Leeds Beckett University, the first BUCS Padel Championships taking place, and the British Student Tennis Team claiming an historic gold medal at the Master U Championships in France.

The success of the British Student Tennis Team at the 2025 Master'U Championships is among a number of highlights in British university tennis over the most recent funding cycle (Credit: Etienne Jeanneret)

More than just performance

Tennis is one of the largest BUCS sports by number of teams, with 391 individual teams entered for the 2026/27 season. Many of these athletes are among the best of all university sportsmen and women, with the University of Stirling men’s 1^st team being crowned Team of the Year in 2026, and Loughborough’s Eliz Maloney being named overall Sportswoman of the Year in 2025.

However, university tennis clubs are more than just hubs for competition. Universities are vital venues for getting both new players into the sport and lapsed players back into tennis, with tennis clubs providing opportunities for students to try social tennis for the first time with friends, or giving players who used to play a way of playing high-level tennis that fits into their studies.

Kieran Wray, a social tennis member at the University of Manchester between 2019 and 2023, outlines the importance of tennis for him as a beginner: "The UoM Tennis Club was one of the most important parts of my uni experience, all throughout my four years in Manchester I played pretty much every week. The social sessions were always well run providing fun and interesting games, the ability to learn and improve through great coaching and being a great way to stay active.”

Like many university tennis clubs across the country, the University of Manchester caters for players of all abilities. (Credit: University of Manchester Tennis Club)

The future of the tennis workforce

Beyond playing, as with tennis clubs and venues across the country, universities rely heavily on members of the club volunteering their time for roles across coaching and administration, roles which for many students are their first taste of such involvement, and roles which they may not have previously considered getting involved in. With funding supporting universities to help grow their student workforce and their programmes, the LTA aims to both grow tennis participation at universities and prepare students to support their local tennis clubs when they graduate.

Tom Horsfall, who studied at Leeds Beckett University, arrived having played extensively as a junior, but had never considered coaching. “Coming to uni, I didn’t intend on becoming a coach, I very much felt ‘I enjoy my tennis, but I want to keep it to just playing’. Initially I was encouraged by my parents and others to do it as a fall back, and a chance to make a bit of money on the side. From there, I was then encouraged to do it more seriously, and if I hadn’t have come to university, that wouldn’t have been something I’d have done.”

Leeds Beckett has a proud tradition of developing coaches from students, with 52 of Yorkshire’s coaching workforce and 16 out of 20 Leeds-based tennis clubs featuring Beckett alumni in their coaching teams. However, from the University of Essex to the University of Edinburgh, student tennis clubs across the country are building links with their communities, whether coaching at clubs, volunteering to coach local schoolchildren, or becoming Barclays Free Park Tennis activators.

The LTA supports a student workforce across our network of partnership universities, offering players the opportunity to take up professional roles that encourage the development of transferable skills. For example, it’s not just seasoned players who can get involved in coaching; the LTA has the Activator course, a free online interactive course which supports students to facilitate tennis sessions, whatever their level of tennis experience.

Coaching in clubs and local communities is a route more and more students in university tennis clubs can explore, and is something many are considering post-studies (Credit: Leeds Beckett University) 

Dan Tilley, Director of Sport at the University of Nottingham, feels that the impact of LTA university funding in the past three years, and going forward, is vital, saying, “The University of Nottingham is incredibly grateful for the support from the LTA and the continued and elevated investment into our University Tennis programme, which has enabled us to create more opportunities for students to play, compete, volunteer in and develop through tennis. Under the expert leadership and relentless dedication of our Head of Tennis, Matt Wildt, we have been able to build one of the best and most vibrant student tennis clubs in the country, with over 650 members now part of the club.

“This latest investment is a recognition of the progress that’s been made and the strength of the programme that has been built over many years. We’re incredibly proud of what has been achieved so far, but there’s still plenty we want to do in particular around workforce development and helping create the next generation of tennis leaders. The next three years represent an exciting opportunity to build on that momentum and to continue to lead and innovate in Higher Education Tennis.”

LTA Universities Manager Alistair Higham said, “University tennis and padel have gone from strength to strength in recent years, both in terms of players’ on-court performances and their off-court involvement and impact in clubs nationwide upon leaving university. We know that the continued health of university tennis means the continued health of British tennis more widely, and we’re looking forward to seeing how we can continue our work with partner universities into the future.”