The Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) is the national governing body of tennis in Great Britain, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. The organisation was founded in 1888 and seven-time Wimbledon champion William Renshaw was elected as its first president.
About
As the governing body, the LTA’s overall purpose is to grow and sustain the sport. The success of British tennis is tracked by five headline measures of success: 1. Number of members of registered places to play 2. Number of British tennis members 3. Number of regularly competing juniors 4. Number of International A Matrix juniors 5. Number of players in the top 100. These measures of success gives a regular snapshot of the impact of work the LTA does and helps the organisation understand through trends the progress over a long period of time. The LTA’s focus is to develop participation growth to help more people play tennis. The approach to growing participation is based on investment in four main areas: 1. Places – Investing in places to play at parks, clubs, schools and tennis centres 2. People – Supporting the people who make tennis happen, including coaches, volunteers and club officials 3. Programmes – Developing programmes including LTA Mini Tennis, Cardio Tennis and Tennis Xpress 4. Promotion – Bringing together the places, people and programmes to show how tennis is a fun affordable, family sport which is a great way to get fit
Tennis is a racket sport that can be played individually against a single opponent (singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over or around a net and into the opponent's court. The object of the game is to play the ball in such a way that the opponent is not able to play a valid return. The player who is unable to return the ball will not gain a point, while the opposite player will.
Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society and at all ages. The sport can be played by anyone who can hold a racket, including wheelchair users. The modern game of tennis originated in Birmingham, England, in the late 19th century as "lawn tennis". It had close connections both to various field ("lawn") games such as croquet and bowls as well as to the older racket sport of real tennis. During most of the 19th-century in fact, the term "tennis" referred to real tennis, not lawn tennis: for example, in Disraeli's novel Sybil (1845), Lord Eugene De Vere announces that he will "go down to Hampton Court and play tennis."