Junior grass court season launches in Nottingham as world’s top juniors begin their preparation for Wimbledon
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The world’s best juniors will take to the grass courts at the Nottingham Tennis Centre this week to compete in the inaugural Junior International Nottingham tournament, a new 18U Grade 1 ITF event. Together with the well-established Junior International Roehampton held the following week, these tournaments form part of the three-week grass court series for the world’s top 150 juniors that culminates with the Junior Championships at Wimbledon.
The enhanced junior grass court series is a collaboration between The All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC) and the LTA, which aims to provide increased opportunities for juniors to practice and compete on grass at all levels of their development and nurture their desire to compete at The Championships in the future as part of an overall junior grass court strategy, announced earlier this year.
A very strong player field has gathered at Nottingham Tennis Centre, including four boys and girls ranked inside the world’s top 20. They will have the opportunity to compete on the same grass courts as the professional players did during the Nature Valley Open. This is a unique opportunity to see the future stars of tennis play and members of the public may watch the matches for free. A daily order of play will be available on the ITF Junior website.
Richard Lewis CBE, Chief Executive of the AELTC, commented: “We are very proud of the investment we are making into junior grass court tennis both in the UK in collaboration with the LTA and internationally. The creation of a three-week grass court series for the first time on the junior tour is an important step to increase playing opportunities for these players on grass at this important stage in their development.
“We have found that many junior players arrive at Wimbledon having had little, if any, exposure to grass court tennis. Our ambition is to help them develop not only their skills on grass, but a love for the surface, which will stand them in good stead for their participation at the Junior Championships, and hopefully, The Championships in future years.”
Scott Lloyd, Chief Executive of the LTA, commented: “The introduction of the Junior International Nottingham is a very positive development for junior tennis, and as the premier grass court nation, we are proud to be able to deliver an additional tournament on grass for the best juniors in the world. We are looking forward to seeing some very competitive tennis being played over the next six days.”
The Junior International Nottingham starts today, Monday 24 June, and will run until Saturday 29 June when the singles and doubles finals are scheduled to be played.
