Tennis

Tennis is currently stronger in the South East than the North East but the Tony Blair Sports Foundation is working to encourage more girls, young people with disabilities and those from more disadvantaged backgrounds to play tennis.

We work closely with the Lawn Tennis Association to develop tennis in the North East and to develop a joint programme to encourage more people to train as coaching assistants and help them become fully accredited licensed coaches.  

Increasing the number of competitions for young players is vital if we are going to develop tennis in this country and find more stars of the future. Tennis was a diminishing sport in the North East with only 250 regularly competing juniors in the region - particularly low when compared with the 10,800 juniors competing on a regular basis throughout the UK.

In the North East, we need more coaches and coaching assistants, particularly for the 10 and under age group. The Tony Blair Sports Foundation works closely with the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) team in the North East to develop tennis in the area and in particular inspire more juniors to pick up a racket and play competitively.

The Tony Blair Sports Foundation Tennis Challenge Cup competition is a huge boost for tennis in the North East and has created a great buzz. The first tennis competition organised by the Foundation was officially launched in November 2007 by Roger Draper, Chief Executive of the Lawn Tennis Association.  

We want more people to train as coaching assistants and officials. Anyone can apply to take the LTA coaching qualifications and have the opportunity to use their skills in local primary schools, assisting teachers to run tennis lessons as part of the PE programme and give more children the opportunity to take up the sport.