Tennis a smash hit, with surging demand for courts and clubs

WITH Wimbledon cancelled and courts locked up during the pandemic, the phrase, “Anyone for tennis?” appeared to have been consigned to the history books this year.

But despite the cancellation of countless tournaments, and a temporary ban on playing, Britons have been getting back in the swing of a sport revitalised by Andy Murray’s successes in recent years. The Lawn Tennis Association

has reported a 372 per cent increase in court bookings from the beginning of May to the end of July compared with the same period last year.

As millions of people have been forced to work from home, it seems many people have been taking advantage of the lockdown to have a knockup with friends.

The LTA saw a 266 per cent increase in court bookings in the first two weeks of June compared with the same period in 2019 after people were given permission to play with others outside their households from June 1.

The highest demand was seen on June 14, when there were a total of 26,829 bookings.

The surge comes after local authorities were encouraged to create new digital booking platforms to entice people to public courts, and a cam- paign was launched to “rewrite the rules of tennis” to make the sport more inclusive.

There have also been reports of clubs imposing caps on members as enquiries soared during lockdown. Olly Scadgell, the LTA’S participation director, said: “It’s great to see the significant numbers of people who have got on court since lockdown first eased back in May. Both our Play Your Way campaign, and our offer to help local authorities improve the accessibility to public park tennis courts are showing encouraging signs as we look to continue to grow the game across the country.

“Both are long-term strategies that were due to be announced this summer irrespective of the pandemic, but both of them have coincided well with the spike in demand for tennis that we have seen.

“Tennis is a game for everyone regardless of their age, background, ability or disability, and we want to encourage players to take up the sport all year round.”

World No1 Novak Djokovic was criticised after he, Grigor Dimitrov, Borna Coric and Viktor Troicki all tested positive for Covid-19 after he held a tournament in Croatia in June.

The move was branded a “boneheaded decision” by Australian rival Nick Kyrgios.

The US Open will be held in New York without fans from Aug 31.