It is becoming all the rage and about time, too. The evocative essay by Tony
Hawks in The Sunday Times this weekend on Tennis for Free, an
initiative that goes to the heart of what is required if the sport is ever
to resound with the nation as a whole, has been followed by the opening of
the first Will to Win Tennis centre in Ealing, West London. The ribbon was
cut by Roger Taylor, who emerged from Sheffield's parks to become a
Wimbledon semi-finalist and Davis Cup stalwart and captain.
WTWT is the brainchild of Steve Riley, who reckons to have invested £400,000
of his own money on the sport in Britain - and there aren't many of those
good folk to go around - and says he is the largest private provider of
public tennis in the UK and is therefore in a powerful position to issue a
challenge to all coaches and local authorities to develop a series of such
tennis centres nationwide.
Though there was no official LTA representation among the 200 attendees at his
opening ceremony at Lammas Park (15 courts, ten of them floodlit), Riley is
working with the Tennis Foundation (the LTA's charitable arm) to build the
venues and employ the coaches who can safeguard the future of public parks
tennis. He regards the Tennis Foundation system of pinpointing tennis
'beacons' and 'hotspots' as a decisive move in creating a winning pathway
for community and parks tennis. WTWT will offer advice to any local
authority or coach with no fee to develop British public tennis for the
benefit of the local community.
As of this week, there are five potential hotspots in Britain - Haringey,
Loughborough and Nottingham, Portsmouth, St Albans and Welwyn Garden City,
Reading and Wokingham - and 60 potential beacons, with the desire to have 50
of those developed by October next year. The hotspots will act as 'areas of
sustainable tennis development, bringing together partners from local
authorities, schools and other education providers and clubs, central to
which will be the championing of free access to courts'. The beacons are
local authority parks providing communities with free access to tennis and
offering 'affordable' access to high quality coaching and competitive
opportunity.
Taylor was at one with the Will to Win Tennis ethos. "I am delighted to
be involved with this scheme and the parks facilities, if properly run and
developed they offer a great opportunity for any kids to develop their
tennis," he said. "Coaches will be able to identify new talent and
enable players to develop. The friendly welcoming atmosphere at these public
facilities will ensure players stay in the game make the parks centres a
success."
The formula, WTWT says, that it has developed over the past decade has
encouraged thousands of juniors to take up the game and stay in it, with the
unique atmosphere of a welcoming public centre with a complete tennis
package. It operates 48 park courts across London, including Hyde Park and
Regents Park, and has a team of 30 professional coaches. Facilities
developed have included clubhouses, cafés, floodlight courts and mini tennis
venues. Using their model, public centres should offer: free tennis from 3pm
to 6pm for all juniors – for walk on play with free rackets and balls; free
local primary schools coaching; links to established members clubs; a team
of qualified coaches offering a complete tennis programme; walk on pay and
play at reasonable rates; a clubhouse to meet and shelter; social tennis
programme for adults and kids and a progression path for those with
exceptional ability.
Riley said: "The time is right for UK coaches to develop their own tennis
centres in public venues, and to have more of a say in how tennis is
developed. Kids will be given priority to enable the player base to grow and
to transform the public perception of this sport from elitist and
restrictive to inclusive and welcoming." Go to www.willtowin.co.uk to
find out more, or alternatively www.tennisfoundation.org.uk. Until we
resurrect parks tennis - which is where most of us fell in love with the
sport in the first place, how can Britain ever find the champions it so
desires?
Nadal says no to Paris Match
Rafael Nadal has been playing golf most days, indulging in a spot of fishing,
between resting and recuperating after his remarkable triumph in the
Wimbledon men's singles final eight days ago. It is a long time since tennis
made the front page of Sports Illustrated, the famed US magazine, but
there it was last week. As one might imagine, the demand to speak to him has
been ridiculous. Every request made for time in his time at home in Majorca
has been refused and the biggest stink was kicked up by Paris Match,
the iconic French magazine. "But nobody has ever turned us down, we are
Paris Match," the lady journalist insisted of Benito Perez-Barbadillo,
Nadal's public relations manager. "Well we are," came the firm but
ever so polite response.
Grime is good for Frinton
Having spent an afternoon in Frinton-on-Sea yesterday watching the qualifying
for the $15,000 ITF Men's Futures, one can appreciate the levels of
dedication and devotion that go to make these events run so smoothly and why
it is sad that 90 per cent of the time no one in the sport ever knows how it
is done, nor pays attention to it anyway. Hats off then to Rebecca James who
runs a smashing tournament office and to George Grime (aka Gorgeous George)
an umpire excellent enough to have officiated the 1986 Wimbledon men's
singles final (Boris Becker against Ivan Lendl) and the Davis Cup final that
year in Kooyong between Australia and Sweden. Grime recalled that when
Stefan Edberg led the first set of the first rubber 5-1 in about half an
hour, he thought he'd be in for a quiet day. Four hours later in sweltering
heat, Pat Cash won the match 13-11, 13-11, 6-4. Grime is tournament referee
this week, spending much of his time watching as many of the 16 grass courts
as he can see from his eyrie in the cramped office upstairs. "Hey Luke,
you haven't moved the board on for three changeovers," he cried to Luke
Campbell during one match yesterday. It was a succinct command, dutifully
responded to. Brilliant.
Family affair
There's an intriguing name in the draw for the ATP challenger in Aptos this
week, one Zacharay Gilbert. If it sounds familiar, then it is because he is
the teenage son of Brad Gilbert, once coach to Andre Agassi, Andy Roddick
and Andy Murray. Young Zak has been given a wild card into a $75,000
tournament, which is very good for him. Alex Bogdanovic, whom Gilbert is
coaching for another couple of months, will also join the field when the
British No 2 arrives from Granby, Canada, where his Challenger final against
Danai Udomchoke, of Thailand, was delayed overnight because of rain.
Happy Hanescu
Around the word in a minute - Romania's Victor Hanescu won the first title of
a six-year professional career in Gstaad, defeating Igor Andreev of Russia.
He saved three match points against Ivo Karlovic in the second round as
well, so it more than felt as if he had earned it. It has taken Juan Martin
Del Potro less time (a couple of years) but the 19-year-old Argentinian
defeated Richard Gasquet of France, 6-3, 7-5 to claim the Mercedes Cup in
Stuttgart. And he drove off in a Mercedes 350 CL as part of the first prize. "When
I was young, I always dreamed about my first ATP title, a grand slam or
winning the Davis Cup," Del Potro said. "Now one of my dreams has
become a reality and I have to savour this moment as I'll never feel the
same again."
Cornet suffers delay in gaining success
The Net Post received a lot of jibes for having selected Alize Cornet, of France,
as a dark horse for the women's singles title at Wimbledon this year, only
for her to succumb in the first round. As it happens, she was just getting
herself started at SW19 and it all came right in Budapest, Hungary yesterday
where Cornet won her first title and followed it up by taking the doubles
with Janette Husarova of Slovakia at the Gaz de France Grand Prix. We knew
she had it in her!
