Diversity & inclusion in tennis
We want tennis to be relevant, accessible, welcoming and enjoyable for everyone, no matter your background, age or ability.
As part of our vision of Tennis Opened Up, in 2021 we outlined a three-year Inclusion Strategy to break down barriers and increase participation in tennis across Britain.
The strategy builds on our previous work and is focused primarily on embedding long-term cultural change and increasing the diversity within our sport.
Find out more about what we are doing to help make tennis a more inclusive sport in Great Britain.
On court and off court, our sport has been a trailblazer for women in sport, with the likes of Billie Jean King paving the way for women for decades. However, we know that there is still more progress needed to make it a truly gender-balanced sport.
Our ‘She Rallies’ ambition is at the heart of our drive to get more women and girls involved in tennis and outlines our commitment to lead the way in gender equality in sport.
She Rallies shows how we aim to do even more to get more women and girls involved in tennis, focussing on the key areas of participation, workforce and visibility where we know we can make the most difference.
We have several programmes and partnerships that are helping to promote gender equality in tennis – including Prime Video LTA Youth Girls, which is giving girls the chance to play in an environment designed so they can better enjoy and hopefully stay in our sport.
We have also invested in raising visibility of women’s tennis by hosting home events such as the Billie Jean King Cup Finals (the World Cup of tennis) in 2022, individual British ties and some of the leading WTA grass court events in the world.
We’re committed to ensure that tennis in Britan can be relevant and accessible to all communities, particularly those from lower socio-economic groups (LSEG).
Evidence still shows that people within higher socio-economic groups are more likely to be playing tennis, which creates unacceptable inequalities in the sport.
Our LTA SERVES programme is a sector-leading sport for development programme, funded by Sport England and the LTA Tennis Foundation – taking tennis into the heart of communities who may never have had the opportunity to pick up a racket and play tennis before.
Delivered in a variety of venues – from Community Centres to Mosques - LTA SERVES has reached more than 48,000 young people, including 17,000 monthly participants, since its launch in 2017.
While the LTA SERVES programme has achieved a great deal over the last few years, we need to do more in order to widen our reach and impact. Through our Breaking Down Barriers plan published last year we've committed to a series of impactful objectives that will tackle underrepresentation in the sport from some of the nation’s most underserved communities.
We’re engaging with ethnically diverse communities across the country to better understand the challenges, barriers and opportunities involved with tennis.
Our three-year Inclusion Strategy lays out steps that we’re taking to ensure we reach all audiences, particularly communities where tennis is not played at the moment and where people may feel it is not a sport for them.
Greater representation in our tennis workforce is a key area of focus. We have engaged coaches from ethnically diverse backgrounds to further understand how we can attract and retain a diverse range of coaches.
In 2023, we were a partner in the inaugural Tennis Black list which was hosted at the National Tennis Centre, which celebrated tennis role models from the black community grassroots level up to the professional game in Britain and internationally.
Everyone should be able to thrive by being their authentic selves and tennis can provide a welcoming environment for those in LGBTQ+ communities.
In 2022, we supported the launch of a new LGBTQ+ tennis network called ‘Pride In Tennis’. Together, we’re working to create safe spaces for those that identify as LGBTQ+, while educating our wider sport on key issues, barriers and opportunities.
Throughout the year, we support key awareness periods, such as PRIDE month and the Stonewall Rainbow Laces campaign, while also utilising our major tennis events to raise visibility of LGBTQ+ inclusion, particularly through our Friday Pride Days that featured across the grass court season.
We work with a number of key networks to ensure our work reflects a wide range of diverse views and expertise. These include: