Young stars finally end their wait to get on court
THE reopening of grassroots tennis facilities meant a return to action for some of Britain’s best juniors.
While elite sport has been able to continue through the last two lockdowns, that has not been the case for academies and regional development centres like Bolton Arena, which hones the skills of the next generation of tennis talent.
The centre has been closed since early January, as it was last spring and November, forcing head coach Steven Fathers to think on his feet.
‘The 12 months has been a challenge in a sense that all the players at our academy are serious tennis players, some aspire to be professionals,’ Fathers said.
‘They live, eat and breathe the sport. To then take that away from them, it was straight away “what can we do to keep them enthused, to challenge them, to continue their development?”,’
Fathers came up with a programme of online education and training for the players and coaches.
However, he admitted he has concerns over the effect of the lockdowns on the prospects of his players.
‘There’s no denying that internationally our players are going to have lost, I wouldn’t say 12 months, but they’re going to be close to that behind,’ he said.
‘There’s Tennis Europe events going on at the moment that foreign players are able to access and we’re not, so we’re losing ranking points left, right and centre while they’re gaining ranking points. So there is certainly going to be a knock-on effect.
‘Undeniably we’re going to be slightly behind but we’ve got to make that up as quickly as we can.’