THE LTA and Tennis Wales have announced today a new funding agreement for Tennis Wales, the National Governing Body for tennis in Wales.
The agreement will last for two years and will see Tennis Wales receive a 20% increase in funding from the LTA, the National Governing Body for tennis across the whole of Great Britain.
The LTA’s funding of £1m over the period, will provide Tennis Wales with the staffing and organisational infrastructure to grow the game in Wales, at a time when British tennis is enjoying a successful period on court and participation is growing following the closure of courts during lockdown in 2020 and 2021.
The increased financial support from the LTA combines with ongoing investment into Tennis Wales from Sport Wales as part of their work to make Wales a more active, healthier nation.
The LTA and Tennis Wales share the same vision of ‘tennis opened up’, with both organisations wanting to grow the sport by making it relevant, accessible, welcoming and enjoyable.
This funding agreement will enable Tennis Wales to continue to deliver on its priorities including activities to grow participation taking the sport and its benefits to more people across Wales and making it more inclusive, competitions to help develop the next generation of players as well as staffing across the organisation.
In addition to this, the LTA also supports tennis in Wales through a number of other investments.
The LTA and UK Government’s park tennis court project is currently delivering a £30.5m investment to refurbish dilapidated park tennis courts across Britain, including those in Wales.
Whilst the LTA’s Performance pathway supports a regional player development centre in Wales, helping provide high quality coaching to the most promising young players in the country.
Following the finalisation of the agreement, Dawn Bowden MS, Deputy Minister for Arts and Sports in the Welsh Government visited the Bridgend Tennis, Squash and Bowls Club courts.
The Deputy Minister discussed areas of focus for 2022 and how the LTA and Tennis Wales can work with Welsh Government to open tennis up across Wales.
Simon Johnson, Chief Executive of Tennis Wales said: “Our partnership with the LTA continues to grow and develop tennis right across Wales. The increased investment into our organisation will open tennis up right across the country, and we look forward to working closely with the tennis community in Wales to deliver this much welcomed investment during the next two years”.
Olly Scadgell, LTA Participation Director, said: “We are pleased to be able to support Tennis Wales with this increased investment. Their plans for developing tennis in Wales are aligned with our approach for the whole of Great Britain.
“This additional funding will help them reach more players and deliver more programmes to grow the sport across all parts of Wales. It’s good news that Tennis Wales are playing a key part in growing participation and opening the sport up to more people in the country, helping to widen the impact of the many physical and mental health benefits that being active through tennis can bring.”
Dawn Bowden MS, the Deputy Minister for Arts and Sport in the Welsh Government added: “It was great to recently see at first hand the work that Tennis Wales are doing to get tennis into local communities.
“I’m pleased that they and the LTA have agreed a new funding settlement, that will allow more people of all ages, across Wales, to enjoy the physical and mental health benefits of playing tennis and keeping active.”
