Lawn Tennis Association Chief Executive Roger Draper took time out from his busy schedule yesterday to visit the Tennis Leicestershire Junior Awards presentation afternoon.
The awards, which were held in the sports pavillion at Leicester Grammar School, were over attended by over 250 young players and their parents from throughout Leicestershire and recognise the tennis achievements of junior players in the county over the last year.
The junior awards have a particular focus on team tennis and Leicestershire has always had a strong tradition for having well supported and highly competitive junior leagues. The afternoon kicked off with Draper giving a short speech on junior tennis in Britain before doing a question and answer session with the audience.
The session then moved on to the awards presentation, and Roger helped hand out medals to all the winning teams and runners up from this summers AEGON Junior Team Tennis in Leicestershire.
Roger Draper said: “It’s been fantastic to come to Leicestershire and recognise those young players who have made a significant contribution to our sport over the last year. I’d certainly like to congratulate all the award winners, and I look forward to hearing about how they progress within the sport over years to come.”
The winners of the Summer County Tour Leaderboard were also recognised before the Junior Team Player of the Year award was presented to Jennifer Gadsby of the Leicestershire club. The club of the year award, based on performances in junior team tennis, was presented to Kibworth Tennis Club for the third year running.
Paul Sheard, LTA Tennis Development Manager for Leicestershire and Derbyshire commented: “It was great to have such a fantastic turn out from the junior players and parents to welcome Roger to the county. We have a really strong culture of team tennis in Leicestershire, with nearly 180 junior teams taking part in AEGON Team Tennis last summer and it was great for the winning teams to be presented with their medals by the Chief executive of the LTA.”
“I’d like to thank Neil Phillips and his organising team for doing a great job pulling together the Junior Awards Presentation and to Alison and Michael Picken who work tirelessly to organise the leagues and make AEGON Junior Team Tennis such a success in Leicestershire”.