NEW BALLS PLEASE!
Herefordshire & Worcestershire LTA has served up a first by becoming the first county in the UK to be sponsored by leading ball manufacturer MANTIS.
The company has signed a three year agreement to sponsor H&W’s thriving summer and winter leagues.
Nottingham-based MANTIS was only launched in 2009 but has already made great strides in the sport and since 2011 has been the ball of choice at the Statoil Masters at the Royal Albert Hall which attracts big names such as John McEnroe, Andy Roddick, Tim Henman and Stefan Edberg.
The sponsorship also signals an important step for H&W which has seen funding from the British LTA drastically reduced in the past couple of years.
H&W runs 37 divisions across its men’s (15), women’s (13) and mixed (nine) summer leagues and an equally busy winter schedule.
In addition MANTIS, which is already used by many county coaches, will provide balls for all H&W’s tournaments including the Pegler H&W County Closed Championships at Manor Park in Malvern.
“We are very excited about the partnership,” said Shaun Crampton, MANTIS’ Sales & Marketing Manager - Racket sports.
“Despite being a relatively new brand to the tennis market we have very quickly established ourselves in the UK and internationally and have had a fantastic response to all our products. Our philosophy at MANTIS is to deliver exceptional quality products at vastly superior prices.
“We are pleased to have the opportunity to team up with the H&W LTA to sponsor its leagues and, in conjunction with our local MANTIS stockists, keep everything within the two counties and touching distance of tennis clubs that play in the league.”
The agreement will also have other positive spin-offs as MANTIS is working with local partner retailers to supply balls to the clubs – a positive move to support local high streets.
“The league programme remains very well supported by clubs across Herefordshire and Worcestershire and with the support of MANTIS we look forward to building on that success,” said Jan Thomas of H&W’s sponsorship and publicity sub-committee.
“Before reaching agreement we conducted a number of ball trials across different surfaces by a variety of players and the feedback for the MANTIS All Court balls proved very positive.”
“The H&W county association looks forward to working together in partnership with MANTIS."