LTA to focus on regional centres seven years & £39million later
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Elite tennis will no longer be ased at the Roehampton National Tennis Centre the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) has announced.
The Roehampton tennis centre opened in 2007 and has for the past seven years been the training for elite players and the administration base for the LTA. The centre has 16 outdoor and six indoor courts, a gymnasium and sports science and medical facilities, as well as accommodation, and it was hoped the facility would help produce world-class players.
Arial view of centre www.lta.org.uk
However, it has been announced that as a result of a review by LTA Chairman Michael Downey (appointed in September 201), that the centre will remain the admin base but only the Britain's Davis and Fed Cup teams, the wheelchair programme and junior training camps will remain at the NTC from next month. The elite squads will visit the centre on occasional training camps.
Responding to a report in The Telegraph, an LTA statement said: "Most of the high-performance players who were part of the national programme and based at the NTC are making plans to relocate to high-performance centres."
Wimbledon based Laura Robson is currently using the NTC as she recovers from a wrist injury, and an LTA statement said the facility would continue to serve as "a drop-in centre for Britain's professional players".
On Saturday Robson tweeted: "I think a few of the Fed & Davis cup team members plan to stay as it's closest to our homes/physios are based at NTC."
The cost of the centre has been criticized over the years - the most damning was probably Judy Murray who once said: “If someone had given me £40 million I would have built forty £1 million centres. It’s more important to grow the game than to stack it all at the top level.”
August 29, 2014
