Lawn Tennis Association plan to capitalize on recent boom in British tennis – Tennis News
World number three, Andy Murray, registered a successful season in 2012 with a Gold Medal at Olympics, a US Open trophy in New York and a final exit at the Wimbledon Championships final at the All England Lawn Tennis Club in London.
He ended the 76-year long drought of a Grand Slam victory for a British lad.
Heather Watson, ranked 49 in the world, registered a breakthrough season and became the top ranked British woman in the world. She is just 20-year-old and already a record holder for ending a 24-year long famine of no Premier title
for a British lady. She won the HP Japan Open in Osaka and accomplished that milestone.
The 18-year-old Laura Robson is another booming British starlet who captured the attention of the world by ending on the side of the second best team in the mix doubles category of London Olympics; winning a Silver Medal alongside
Andy Murray. She is on the brink of breaking into the Top-50 category having ended the season as the 53rd ranked player in the world.
All these achievements have pressurized the Lawn Tennis Association to inject more money into the field of tennis, especially at the grass root level. The LTA was warned by the Sport England that there funding can majorly reduce
if there is a lack of participation at the grass root level. The Association received 24.5 million pounds for 2009-2013 but it is going to go down to 17.4 million pounds for the next four years time period.
Sport England's chief executive Jennie Price said, “They need a stronger plan, they need the right skills to deliver it and they need to have feedback so they know what is working and change it fast if it's not working.”
The statement further added, “The LTA has taken a while to grasp that is a different market place now and you have to build participation despite so much competition out there. You can't just shout, 'I am tennis, here's my product',
the sport has to start instead understanding what their customer wants. For the first time we have created a specific fund to reward success by (National Governing Bodies) who prove they can grow their sports.”
It is a case of serious concern for all the upcoming stars but the recent results and boom in British tennis can always help the association to revive the fundings.
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