Tennis in the North East is to receive a huge boost after Roger Draper, chief executive of the LTA announced today the first annual Tony Blair Tennis Competition for schools.

One of the main focuses of the new Foundation will be to run an annual competition for school children in the region to encourage more youngsters to take up the sport and play regularly. Providing more opportunities for juniors to compete is key to developing British tennis and there is the potential for hundreds of children in the area to take part.

Roger Draper announced the news of the competition at the launch of the charity this morning. He said: “Next year will see the first annual Tony Blair Tennis Tournament and we hope it will be the start of something that continues to grow.

“Increasing the number of competitions for young players is so important if we are going to develop tennis in this country and find more stars of the future. Having the support of the foundation will be a huge boost and will create a great buzz around tennis in the area.”

Schools who would like to take part in the 2008 Tony Blair Tennis Competition should register their interest here.

Members of the public who would like to become trained to help run the Competition or become a tennis coaching assistant or tennis coach should contact us here.