Tennis Foundation awards grants to 52 universities

Great Britain’s leading tennis charity Tennis Foundation has awarded the University Tennis Development Awards to 52 universities to help alleviate in expanding the sport during the 2013 – 2014 academic year.

The grants go as high as £1,000 were extended to the recipients’ tennis clubs to encourage more students and staff to participate in tennis.

According to the press release provided by LTA, the universities applied for the grant based on the following criteria: people, programs, promotion and improving access to tennis for disabled people.

For the first time in 2013, half of the awards were allocated towards a University Tennis Ambassador, a position for undergraduates that is voluntary in nature. The person taking the post will have the responsibility of making sure that the objectives of their applications were met.

“The funding has allowed social players to get more court time and therefore more participants have been retained. This, in turn, has impacted on the quality and provision offered to our competitive teams. Moreover, students beginning university now have the opportunity to work through from social to competitive tennis if they want to,” said Anthony Hennelly, Sports Development Officer at Imperial College London.

“The Development Award has been key to growing tennis at Nottingham Trent University, ensuring that we have access to support and resources to help build a sustainable club for the future. It has allowed tennis at NTU to explore opportunities that would have normally been restricted due to lack of funding,” said Oliver Ward, Racket Sport Development Officer at Nottingham Trent University.

“We were very impressed by the standard of applications this year and we are delighted so many universities are committed to getting more people play tennis. The Development Awards are just one of many support tools from British tennis to support the game in higher education institutions across the country,” said Alistair Higham, the Higher Education Manager for Tennis Foundation.