Tennis membership of registered places to play has grown by over 60,000 people in Britain, an increase of 12 per cent on 2011.
There are now 576,608 tennis members at clubs and other places to play in Britain, up from 516,324 in the previous year.
Adult membership has grown by 23,000, and junior and mini tennis membership has grown by 37,000.
LTA Development Director, Tom Harlow, said: “It’s very encouraging to see such growth across our 2,684 registered clubs and places to play. We still have plenty to do to encourage more adults to play tennis, and we’re working with our partners at the Tennis Foundation and Sport England in order to achieve this, but this is an encouraging sign that in a key part of our sport, we are seeing an increase in the number of people who want to play tennis regularly.”
One reason for the rise has been an increase in the number of registered places to play, up from 2,464 in 2010 to 2,684 in 2012.
The largest percentage of membership growth has come at the 931 Clubmark accredited clubs, which focus on improving the quality of tennis programme offered at a tennis place to play. Membership at these clubs has increased by 12.5 per cent compared to an average growth of 8.5% in non Clubmark accredited clubs.
A recent audit has also shown that many members have been attracted to the sport through Cardio tennis. There are now more than 3,500 people who do cardio tennis every week in Britain.
Find a tennis court, someone to play with and enter your results online at www.allplaytennis.com.