LTA Tennis Foundation delivers unique experiences for Charity Network across summer grass court events
• 4 MINUTE READ
Yes, our summer grass court tournaments are all about tennis, but if you look behind the scenes, there is a lot more going on - including a host of unique experiences for groups within the LTA and the LTA Tennis Foundation’s community.
The LTA Tennis Foundation is our official charity with a mission to improve lives through tennis. It does this through three funding streams, but it's also dedicated to offering money can't buy experiences.
All members of the LTA Tennis Foundation’s Charity Network are offered complimentary tickets to our summer grass court events. This year we enabled over 300 people to attend the events, which for some, was the first time they'd ever watched live tennis. Amani, a participant with Carolle and Iman Tennis in Birmingham said, “It was my first-time seeing men's tennis live and I really enjoyed it, the seats were basically front row. We had an amazing day - it was really great getting behind the Brits playing!”
Over the six weeks, there were many other inspirational experiences and vital activations that raised awareness and donations for the LTA Tennis Foundation - here are just a few...
cinch Championships Fan Day in aid of the LTA Tennis Foundation
The 2024 cinch Championships got underway with a Fan Day in aid of the LTA Tennis Foundation. The day gave over 4,000 fans the opportunity to watch open practice sessions and exhibition matches on Centre Court at The Queen's Club. The exhibition matches saw eight players take part and were split into two teams named after the LTA Tennisables, 'Bounce' and 'Ace'.
Team Ace, captained by Judy Murray and comedian Josh Berry was made up of three-time Grand Slam champion Sir Andy Murray, Neal Skupski, Joe Salisbury and Frances Tiafoe, while Cam Norrie, Francisco Cerundolo, Mate Pavic and Marcelo Arevalo formed Team Bounce - led by former professional tennis player Annabel Croft and Bear Grylls OBE.
Representatives from The Queen’s Club Foundation and the Tim Henman Foundation, who are both funded by the LTA Tennis Foundation, joined Team Bounce and Team Ace to support the captains and their players.
Mark Love, who attended with the children and young people from the Tim Henman Foundation said, "Our fan day experience at Queen's was an amazing day for all involved. All the pros and celebs were so accommodating and made the experience even more enjoyable.
"We had smiles on our faces all day. To be so close to the action and step on Centre Court was a dream for all involved. Everyone was still talking about it a week on and love tennis even more now.”
Find out more about the Fan Day
Behind the scenes media experiences
Three LTA Tennis Foundation Charity Partners; Rackets Cubed, Sport Legacy Foundation, and Greenhouse Sports were invited to take part in a behind the scenes media experience at Rothesay Open Nottingham, Rothesay Classic Birmingham and Rothesay International Eastbourne, respectively.
The groups were able to see what a media centre was like, understand the role of Media Managers and journalists, and have a meet and greet with players, including Sloane Stephens and Sophia Kenin. The Media Managers hosted each session and treated the groups as if they were real journalists, with each child being given the opportunity to ask the players a question.
As well as being a memorable experience for the children, we hope they showcased the career opportunities there are within the tennis and sports industry.
Alongside this, 10 people from organisations funded by the LTA Tennis Foundation took part in coin tosses on centre court across the events, with one young man named Leo stealing the crowd's hearts at the cinch Championships during a short interview on court.
Eight-year-old Leo has been playing standing and wheelchair tennis since April 2024 with The Queen's Club Foundation, who are funded by the LTA Tennis Foundation. The MC, Pippa Horn asked him why he likes playing tennis, to which his response was, “It is really fun, and I get to meet people." He was then asked who his favorite player was, to which he replied, Alfie Hewett, with Leo being lucky enough to meet his hero later on in the week.
We cannot finish without giving a huge thank you to the players who took part in the LTA Tennis Foundation’s meet and greet signing sessions. It was a privilege to host so many, including Britain's breakthrough star of the summer Billy Harris, cinch Championships and Rothesay International men's doubles champion Neal Skupski, 2024 Roland Garros and Wimbledon runner-up Jasmine Paolini, and Laylah Fernandez.
Fundraising and support
Throughout the grass court season, the LTA Tennis Foundation were fortunate to be joined by some amazing volunteers to help us with our fundraising. They supported activities including raffles at cinch Championships and Rothesay International, hospitality activations, and tennis ball resale across the whole grass court season.
We also had amazing support from BNP Paribas through their BNP Paribas Points For Change initiative – donating £2 for every point won and £25 for every ace served at The Queen's Club. In addition to this, they challenged tournament attendees to test their motor skills through tennis related games – with everyone donating £1 to the LTA Tennis Foundation.
With the support of the LTA, we raised over £180,000 for the LTA Tennis Foundation during the grass court season. Every penny raised will make a huge difference in enabling even more people to access the unique and life-changing benefits that tennis offers. Thank you to all those who got involved – we couldn’t have done it without you.
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