Mayor and LTA partner to open tennis up to thousands more Londoners
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The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has today announced a new partnership with the LTA that will open up the sport to more people across London.
The new three-year collaboration will see a £500,000 investment from the Mayor and the LTA into Rally Together London, a programme which will train 250 people from under-represented backgrounds to join the tennis workforce and facilitate sessions for local communities, with a minimum of 50% to be female.
The programme will help at least 5,500 more young people to play the sport, with a particular focus on disadvantaged boroughs. This capitalises on the return this year of women’s tennis to the Queen’s Club as part of the HSBC Championships, and will help open up access to the sport across the whole city.
Rally Together London will recruit, train and deploy 200 tennis activators to deliver the sport. These activators will help grow the LTA’s Barclays Free Park Tennis programme which offers free, weekly sessions with equipment provided on public park courts, and LTA SERVES which takes tennis to the heart of local communities for young people who may never otherwise have played.
Through the partnership, a cohort of 50 new tennis coaches will be supported to achieve their LTA Assistant (Level 1) and Instructor (Level 2) qualifications to help grow participation in parks and community venues, and create employment opportunities, again with a particular focus on growing the number of female coaches in the sport.
The wider partnership will see the Mayor and LTA work together on various initiatives and campaigns to promote women’s tennis and women’s sport across the capital, such as the recent launch of the HSBC Championships with a pop-up tennis court on the city’s iconic Trafalgar Square. The announcement comes as a women’s tennis tournament returns to the iconic Queen’s Club for the first time in more than 50 years, with the HSBC Championships 2025 running through to 15 June.
The really exciting aspect of this partnership is that we will be reaching young people across the capital and specifically young women, as we create new opportunities for them play tennis and to join the tennis workforce.
Many of the world’s best women’s tennis players are competing in West London, including Britain’s own 2021 US Open champion Emma Raducanu and British No.1 Katie Boulter.
They are joined by global stars including reigning Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova, reigning Australian Open champion Madison Keys and Paris 2024 Olympic Champion Qinwen Zheng. The line up also features former Wimbledon champions in Petra Kvitova and Elena Rybakina.
The Mayor has declared London the undisputed global capital for women’s sport in 2025. In addition to the HSBC Championships, the capital is also set to host the Women's Rugby World Cup final at Twickenham Stadium, which will have a world-record attendance for a standalone women’s rugby XV’s event, as well as football, basketball, rugby league, hockey, cricket, netball, athletics and triathlon.
Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: “I am delighted to be partnering with the LTA to deliver tennis to thousands of Londoners in areas that have previously had limited opportunity to play the sport.
“The really exciting aspect of this partnership is that we will be reaching young people across the capital and specifically young women, as we create new opportunities for them play tennis and to join the tennis workforce.
“I am delighted we are announcing this new partnership as women’s tennis returns to the iconic Queen’s Club for the first time in more than 50 years, with world’s best players competing in our city at the HSBC Championships.
“London is the undisputed global capital for women’s sport in 2025 and I am determined to bring even more sporting events to our city as we continue working to build a better, healthier, more prosperous London for all.”
We know that London is a tennis city, with iconic events like the HSBC Championships engaging and inspiring the next generation to pick up a racket and play on accessible community facilities, including park courts in every London Borough.
LTA Chief Executive, Scott Lloyd, said: “As women’s tennis returns to the Queen’s Club, this partnership with the Mayor of London will make a significant difference in opening access to our sport for communities across the whole of London.
“We know that London is a tennis city, with iconic events like the HSBC Championships engaging and inspiring the next generation to pick up a racket and play on accessible community facilities, including park courts in every London Borough.
“This partnership will help open up tennis and its benefits to even more people, by growing the number of LTA activators and coaches and ensure that the tennis workforce is reflective of the diversity of the capital.
“In particular, we are excited by the opportunity to grow the female tennis workforce, which will in turn help provide opportunities for more women and girls to pick up a racket and play.”
Naomi, an LTA SERVES Activator from Badu Sports based in East London said "Tennis is an amazing sport, and I've seen the impact that it can deliver for young people in London first-hand, helping them get active, developing skills and confidence.
"It's great that this new partnership between the LTA and Mayor of London will help give more young people across the city access to the sport — particularly as tennis has historically not been fully inclusive or accessible to underrepresented groups."
"Not only is tennis a great sport to play, but it can also help young people to develop their skills as a volunteer or coach, and even be an opportunity for paid employment.
"I hope that as a result of this new partnership we will see more women and girls getting into tennis."
