Established | 2007 |
---|---|
Chief Executive | Scott Lloyd |
Address | 100 Priory Lane, Roehampton London, SW15 |
Location | , , England, United Kingdom |
The United Kingdom's National Tennis Centre at Roehampton in south-west London is the high-performance training facility of the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA). It was officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II on 29 March 2007. [1] The Chief Executive of the centre is Scott Lloyd.
The centre has 16 outdoor courts, covering all the Grand Slam surfaces, six indoor courts, a gymnasium and sports science and medical facilities. It also houses the administration of the LTA, which was previously based at the Queen's Club in West Kensington.
The National Tennis Centre was built in response to a 1999 review by the LTA of the reasons for its sustained failure to produce world class tennis players (the only British players of either sex to make the world top fifty in the 1990s were Tim Henman, who did not come up through the LTA system, and Greg Rusedski, who learned to play in Canada). It was inspired by the national tennis centres in the more successful tennis nations of France, Belgium, Spain, Italy, Switzerland and the United States and serves as a focus for high performance players and coaches. [2]
Previously the LTA's elite training facilities were at Queen's Club, but they were deemed inadequate for the purpose and Queen's is better known as a social club for wealthy Londoners rather than as a centre of sporting excellence. The LTA sold Queen's Club back to the club members. The south-west London location was chosen because it is close to the All England Club, home of the Wimbledon Championships, and many leading British players live in the area.
The National Tennis Centre was designed by Hopkins Architects, [3] the designers of Portcullis House.
The Sport Canopy won a British Construction Industry Awards in 2011. [4]
The Centre has been criticised for not producing world class tennis players and financial waste. [5]
The centre closed in September 2014. Under the new model overseen by the LTA's chief executive, Michael Downey, the NTC was to remain the administrative headquarters of the organisation, but the elite players were only to use the 22 courts for occasional training camps. [6]
Roehampton is an area in southwest London, in the Putney SW15 postal district, and takes up a far western strip, running north to south, in the London Borough of Wandsworth. It contains a number of large council house estates and is home to the University of Roehampton.
Sir Michael John Hopkins was an English architect.
The Queen's Club Championships is an annual tournament for men's tennis, held on grass courts at the Queen's Club in West Kensington, London. The event is part of the ATP Tour 500 series on the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) Tour. It is currently advertised as the "cinch Championships" after its title sponsor.
The Queen's Club is a private sporting club in Barons Court, West Kensington, London, England. The club hosts the annual Queen's Club Championships men's grass court lawn tennis tournament. It has 28 outdoor courts and ten indoor. With two courts, it is also the national headquarters of real tennis, hosting the British Open every year excepting 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic. The Queen's Club also has rackets and squash courts; it became the headquarters for both sports after the closure of the Prince's Club in 1940.
The Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) is the national governing body of tennis in Great Britain, the Channel Islands, and the Isle of Man founded in 1888. The LTA promotes all levels of lawn tennis. The organization believes tennis can provide "physical, social, and mental rewards both on and off the court." The National Tennis Centre (NTC) in Roehampton, southwest London, serves as its main training facility. The Princess of Wales has been an LTA patron since 2017. Its first president was seven-time Wimbledon champion William Renshaw.
The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club (AELTC), also known as the All England Club, based at Church Road, Wimbledon, London, England, is a private members' club. It is best known as the venue for the Wimbledon Championships, the only Grand Slam tennis event still held on grass. Initially an amateur event that occupied club members and their friends for a few days each summer, the championships have become far more prominent than the club itself. However, it still operates as a members' tennis club.
David Sherwood is a British tennis coach and retired tennis player. In his only live Davis Cup match, Sherwood played doubles with Andy Murray beating the Israeli World No 4 doubles team of Jonathan Erlich and Andy Ram,
The Eastbourne International is a tennis tournament on the WTA Tour and the ATP Tour held at the Devonshire Park Lawn Tennis Club, Eastbourne, United Kingdom. Held since 1974, it is classified as a WTA 500 series on the WTA Tour and an ATP Tour 250 series on the ATP Tour. The tournament is played on outdoor grass courts, and is generally considered a "warm-up" for the Wimbledon Championships, a major tournament, which begins the following week. It was originally just part of the WTA Tour, but from 2009 it was combined as an ATP Tour event. It replaced the Nottingham Open grass court tournament from 2009–2014. Nottingham returned for 2015–2016 with no men's event in Eastbourne, however Eastbourne replaced the Nottingham event again from 2017 onwards. As of 2022, it is sponsored by Rothesay, with past sponsors including Viking Cruises, Nature Valley and AEGON.
Daniel Evans is a British professional tennis player from England. He has been ranked ranked as high as world No. 21 in singles by the ATP, which he achieved on 7 August 2023. He reached a career-high ranking of world No. 52 in doubles on 26 April 2021. In 2015, he formed part of the winning British Davis Cup team.
Hopkins Architects is a prominent British architectural firm established by architects Sir Michael and Patricia, Lady Hopkins.
The Nottingham Open, originally known as the Nottingham Championships or Nottingham Lawn Tennis Tournament (1887–1967), is a tennis tournament for men and women held in Nottingham, United Kingdom, played on outdoor grass courts at the Nottingham Tennis Centre. After being discontinued in 2008, it was downgraded in 2011 to ATP Challenger Tour and ITF Women's Circuit, briefly re-established as an ATP World Tour 250 event on the men's tour in 2015 and 2016, before returning to a Challenger event in 2017, and since 2015 it has been an international event on the women's tour. The tournament is held in June as a "warm-up" for Wimbledon.
James Ward is a British former professional tennis player. He is a Davis Cup champion and former British No. 2.
Roger Draper is the former chief executive of Sport England from 2003 to 2006, and the Lawn Tennis Association from 2006 to 2013.
John Edward Barrett, is a former tennis player, television commentator and author. He was born in Mill Hill, North West London, the son of Alfred Edward Barrett, a leaf tobacco merchant, and Margaret Helen Barrett. He had one sister, Irene Margaret Leppington (1925–2009), a research chemist. His father had the rare distinction of having played both for Leicester Tigers RFC as a wing three-quarter and for Leicester Fosse FC as a wing half.
The Edgbaston Priory Club is a private members' tennis, squash and leisure club in Birmingham, England. The club is the host of the annual WTA Tour stop, the Rothesay Classic. The 'Ann Jones Court' stadium has a capacity of 2,500 people.
The Devonshire Park Lawn Tennis Club is a tennis complex in Eastbourne, United Kingdom. The complex is the host of the annual ATP and WTA Tour tournament called the Eastbourne International. The stadium court has a capacity of 8,000 people. The Devonshire Park, originally intended as a cricket ground, opened its gates to the public on 1 July 1874 and in 1879, the first tennis courts was marked out on its lawns. In 1877 the All England Croquet and Lawn Tennis Club set about regularising the laws of lawn tennis and produced its first tournament at Wimbledon running from July 9–16 of that year. In 1881 the club staged the inaugural South of England Championships, the event was played annually for 136 years until 1972.
Tennis Wales (Welsh: Tennis Cymru) is the national governing body for tennis in Wales. It is part of the British tennis governing body, the Lawn Tennis Association. It was founded as the Welsh Lawn Tennis Association (WLTA) in 1887.
Leon Smith, is a British tennis coach. Smith has been captain of the Great Britain Davis Cup team since 2010, and led the Great Britain team to win the 2015 Davis Cup.
Judith Mary Murray, OBE is a Scottish tennis coach. She is the mother of professional tennis players Jamie and Sir Andy Murray.
Loughborough Sport is the brand identity for the sport-related activities and facilities at Loughborough University. The University has a wide variety of facilities covering a range of sports and is host to a number of sports governing bodies.