Exeter Tennis Centre (part of the University of Exeter) has won the Education Award at the British Tennis Awards hosted by the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA).
The accolade was awarded in honour of the centre’s continued success in educating and training students and members of the wider community.
Director of Tennis Will McNally commented “It is a real honour to win such a prestigious award. Our goal has always been to help as many people as possible enjoy this fantastic sport and the whole team at Exeter Tennis Centre have been working incredibly hard to achieve this. It’s fantastic that this work has been recognised by the LTA.
Tennis is an integral part of sport at the University of Exeter. The student tennis club is the largest sports club on campus with nearly 500 members. Of the current crop, over 172 have been trained as LTA volunteers with a one hundred of these achieving either a level one or higher coaching award.
The centre has a strong community presence, working closely with the LTA to create programmes to support all ages and abilities. The centre holds weekly development courses for juniors and adults improve their game as well as fitness sessions and social events to help the community enjoy all that tennis has to offer.
This award comes at an incredibly exciting time for tennis in Exeter. Exeter Tennis Centre has recently completed a facility development to cover six of their outdoor courts bringing their indoor total to 10 – the largest number of indoor courts at any university in the UK. This October performance player Jack Findel-Hawkins also won his first British Tour event in Swansea in a competition dominated by Exeter trained players.
The award ceremony took place at London’s O2 arena during the Barclays World Tour Finals. During the event guests were invited to watch LTA player of the year, and world number three, Andy Murray during his successful opening round against the Czech Republic’s Tomas Berdych.
Will said “We have had a wonderful time today at the ceremony and enjoyed watching some great tennis. It’s been a fantastic year for British tennis and we hope that we will be able to continue to support the incredible talent that is coming through our development programmes and train a new generation of champions.”