LTA releases new commitment to championing ethnic diversity in tennis and padel
• 4 minute read
The LTA has today released a new commitment to championing ethnic diversity in tennis and padel with a focus on making all aspects of tennis and padel in Britain genuinely reflective of the communities around us.
We have today published our new Connecting Communities – Ethnically Diverse Communities Plan – setting out the work we are doing with people from an ethnically diverse background to create a sport where they feel like they belong, are represented and empowered - from grass roots to the professional game.
The plan sits under our wider Equity Diversity and Inclusion strategic plan – Belonging in Tennis – and lays out the steps that we’re taking to ensure we reach all audiences, particularly communities where tennis and padel is not played at the moment and where people may feel it is not a sport for them.
Scott Lloyd, LTA CEO, said: “We know that if you are from an ethnically diverse background you are more likely to be under-represented, in sport more broadly and parts of tennis, in relation to the size of your community in Britain.
“We also know the importance of seeing “people like me” to feel inspired to play, to volunteer, to coach and to be a leader in sport. Our vision is tennis opened up and we want to ensure that people from all communities, no matter what their lived experience, cultural and religious background, or historical influences shaped by both ethnicity and race, feel like they belong. We want everyone to see tennis and padel as “my sport” and are committed to listening to, and working with, organisations and individuals from all communities to make this a reality.”
Our research, data, and conversations with ethnically diverse communities show that while progress has been made, more work is needed to change both perceptions and realities in tennis and padel. We recognise that some challenges are unique to specific ethnic groups, but many barriers are shared and intersect with other under-represented communities - particularly women and girls, and under-served communities, linking with our She Rallies and Breaking Down Barriers plans.
We want everyone to see tennis and padel as “my sport” and are committed to listening to, and working with, organisations and individuals from all communities to make this a reality.
The Connected Communities plan identifies that to improve experiences and representation for ethnically diverse communities, we must address three key issues:
Culture -“It should look and feel like a sport for me.”
- Improving the visibility of ethnically diverse communities across the sport
- Creating safe, welcoming and inclusive spaces in tennis and padel
- Empowering leaders to be more inclusive
Communities - “You need to listen to and understand my community and provide real opportunities to play and develop.”
- Understanding communities
- Connecting communities to opportunities to play
- Enabling belonging at every stage
Workforce - “There needs to be more, and more visible, role models from our communities in tennis and padel.”
- Closing the workforce representation gap
- Enabling our workforce to be more inclusive
- Supporting our workforce to develop
We have made progress in recent years: more people from an ethnically diverse background are picking up a racquet and playing, both yearly and monthly, than they were five years ago when we launched our first Inclusion Strategy.
Through the ambitious work set out in this plan, we will work to address areas where we know there is still under-representation, such as the tennis workforce, building on our work to engage more coaches from ethnically diverse backgrounds and the launch of our Black and Asian Coaches Network.
What we have achieved so far has come from working more closely with communities, and leaders in them, listening to them to understand how to do things differently to create that feeling of belonging and to better understand the challenges, barriers and opportunities involved with tennis and padel.
We supported the launch of the Tennis Black List in 2023, a platform celebrating Black and mixed Black heritage excellence in the game, which has now become a successful annual celebration in the tennis calendar.
In addition, we established the Black Tennis Collective bringing together five pioneering organisations from the Black tennis community in a powerful collaboration with the LTA. At the heart of the Black Tennis Collective lies a shared commitment to enhance Black visibility and participation in tennis and padel across Britain offering valuable insights and perspectives from the Black community.
Alongside this, we have also supported and part funded a new innovative piece of research with Women in Sport and other sport national governing bodies exploring the needs and experiences of Black Girls in Sport which revealed the multiple challenges restricting their participation in sport, and are working with Women in Sport and others across the sector to rebuild that lost trust.
Elsewhere, we have also entered into a collaboration with Brown Girl Sport, an online platform and community that tells the stories of and celebrates South Asian women in sport, with the aim of increasing representation and visibility of women and girls and we’ve been deepening our engagement with faith-based communities, including through working with Muslim community groups to mark Ramadan with events at the National Tennis Centre and Lexus Nottingham Tennis Centre.
This progress, combined with the ambitions set out in our new Connecting Communities Plan, will pave the way for us to realise our vision of tennis opened up and ensure tennis is truly for everyone, everywhere.
