LTA Annual Report and Accounts show growth of tennis and padel in 2025
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The LTA is today publishing its Annual Report and Accounts for 2025. With the launch of a new grass court calendar, record high participation figures and strong performances from British players on the professional tours, 2025 was a successful year for British tennis, despite ongoing financial uncertainty and competition from other sports and leisure activities.
Financial results
The LTA entered 2025 with uncertainty resulting from the new grass court calendar, including the staging of a new high-profile WTA 500 event at The Queen’s Club, and the expiry of a number of existing commercial deals.
Through prudent financial management, increased commercial returns (revenue up 37%) and strong performances from the LTA’s own events (revenue up 24%) the Group was able to make additional investment in participation, performance and marketing activities during the year, as well as donating £3m to the LTA Tennis Foundation in support of our aligned vision of Tennis Opened Up.
The Championships at Wimbledon, organised by a joint Committee of Management on behalf of both the LTA and AELTC, act as a showcase for British tennis and provides important funds for the British game, used to support the LTA’s initiatives from grassroots to professional tennis.
In 2025, there was a fall in the surplus received from the Wimbledon Championships of 4% compared to the previous year. The surplus income received from the Championships makes up 46.5% of the LTA’s income this year down from nearly 60% in 2018 as the LTA’s other revenues have grown at a faster rate.
Overall, the LTA Group reported an operating profit of £0.3m at year end, compared to a loss of £6.7m in 2024. The LTA is a not-for-profit organisation and each year aims to invest as much of its revenue back into its operations as possible, in order to drive the biggest impact and growth in tennis and padel. Nevertheless, there remain challenges for 2026 and beyond including; increasing costs in staging major events, inflation risks in the wider economic environment, and a strong need to continue to invest in facilities, participation initiatives and the player pathway.
The percentage of the LTA’s income derived from the Wimbledon Championships remains critical to its ability to support British Tennis. In the year ahead the LTA remains committed to actively and successfully exploring opportunities for revenue growth from new sources, including investment opportunities, to ensure that tennis in Britain can continue to compete with other sports domestically and other leading tennis nations.
Participation
The grassroots for both tennis and padel continued to be in good health with adult annual participation for tennis rising to 5.8 million in summer 2025 – the highest figure recorded.
Children’s tennis participation also rose to a new high, with more than 4 million children playing tennis each year. Children’s regular play is also rising strongly: during the year the number of children playing monthly was up 15% to 1.8 million, and weekly play was up 26% to 0.8 million.
Padel participation doubled within the calendar year to 860,000, whilst the number of padel courts in Britain rose to over 1500. Padel participation has since passed 1m players.
The parks tennis programme, funded by the UK Government and LTA Tennis Foundation concluded with more than 3,000 park tennis courts across Britain renovated and upgraded. More than half of these courts were in areas of highest social deprivation. This has driven over 500,000 extra players in parks, and the LTA has continued to expand Barclays Free Parks Tennis – free, weekly sessions delivered locally, removing barriers to play by providing equipment and other people to play with.
Other community programmes include LTA SERVES which takes tennis into underserved communities and now operates across 1,000 venues, supporting more than 35,000 young people to take part regularly. The LTA’s Open Court programme, which supports disabled people and those with long-term health conditions, reached a record number of venues and enabled nearly 25,000 participants to play regularly.
Performance
British players continued to record strong results across the men’s, women’s and wheelchair tours. During the year there were 11 British men in the ATP singles top 200 in the same week for the first time since 1976, and 13 featured across the year. The end of the year saw five British men in the ATP doubles top 10 – the first time in 32 years any nation has achieved that.
Francesca Jones became the fifth British woman in the WTA top 100 during the calendar year, and Great Britain’s Billie Jean King Cup team reached the semi-finals of the competition for the third time in the past four years.
At Wimbledon, there were 23 British players in the singles main draw for the first time since 1984. Julian Cash and Lloyd Glasspool became the first all-British pair to win the men’s doubles since 1936, and they finished the year as the world No.1 doubles team.
Across the wider season other notable successes included Henry Patten winning the Australian Open men’s doubles title with Harri Heliövaara, Alfie Hewett winning the Australian Open men’s wheelchair singles title, and Jack Draper winning the biggest title of his career at Indian Wells.
Aimee Gibson and Catherine Rose also both entered the FIP Padel top 100, whilst Great Britain’s men’s and women’s padel teams also both qualified for the FIP Euro Padel Cup – Final 8 in Spain.
Major events, audiences and inclusion
As the end of 2024 the LTA announced a re-organisation of the grass-court calendar from 2025 to maximise visibility and ensure every event featured both men’s and women’s tennis. The most high profile change was the return of professional women’s tennis to The Queen’s Club after more than 50 years.
The new WTA 500 event was an outstanding success with over 62,000 spectators attending, one of the highest attendances for a standalone WTA event anywhere in the world. TV audiences for both men’s and women’s events showed strong growth, and digital interactions reaching 5.5 million.
Accompanying this there was a significant uplift in women’s prize money for 2025 and a new commitment to equalise men’s and women’s prize money at both the HSBC Championships and the Lexus Eastbourne Open no later than 2029.
The LTA’s Advantage membership programme also grew by 25% year on year, ending the year with 2.5 million members. Whilst February saw an updated Equity, Diversity and Inclusion plan – Belonging in Tennis – launched to keep driving cultural change across the sport. That includes actions to grow participation and engagement with women and girls, under-served communities, and people with an impairment.
LTA Tennis Foundation
The LTA Tennis Foundation’s work is covered in more detail in its Annual Report, however in 2025 it generated over £21m in societal value by awarding over £1 million to 16 organisations through its Grant Making Framework. In addition it continued to fund tuition, equipment and access through programmes such as LTA SERVES, Open Court and LTA Youth Schools.
Through facility loans, the Foundation also helped deliver projects including 14 new covered courts and 34 new floodlit courts across tennis and padel, supporting clubs to grow membership, reach new communities and expand programmes.
Scott Lloyd, LTA Chief Executive, said: “I’m proud of our achievements in 2025, as we continued to grow both tennis and padel in Britain, despite the competition for people’s time and attention from other sports and leisure activities. Launching a new grass-court professional calendar was a significant risk for the organisation, but paid off, with strong returns and greater visibility for women’s tennis in particular. We want to build on this momentum this year and continue to open up tennis and padel to more people across Britain, and support our British players at every age and stage of the pathway.”
