The world’s best juniors will take to the grass courts at the Nottingham Tennis Centre this week to compete in the inaugural Junior International Nottingham tournament, a new 18U Grade 1 ITF event.

Together with the well-established Junior International Roehampton held the following week, these tournaments form part of the three-week grass court series for the world’s top 150 juniors that culminates with the Junior Championships at Wimbledon.

The enhanced junior grass court series is a collaboration between The All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC) and the LTA, which aims to provide increased opportunities for juniors to practise and compete on grass at all levels of their development and nurture their desire to compete at The Championships in the future as part of an overall junior grass court strategy, announced earlier this year.

A very strong player field has gathered at Nottingham Tennis Centre, including four boys and girls ranked inside the world’s top 20. They will have the opportunity to compete on the same grass courts as the professional players did during the Nature Valley Open. This is a unique opportunity to see the future stars of tennis play and members of the public may watch the matches for free. A daily order of play will be available on the ITF Junior website.

Richard Lewis CBE, Chief Executive of the AELTC, commented:

“We are very proud of the investment we are making into junior grass court tennis both in the UK in collaboration with the LTA and internationally. The creation of a three-week grass court series for the first time on the junior tour is an important step to increase playing opportunities for these players on grass at this important stage in their development.

“We have found that many junior players arrive at Wimbledon having had little, if any, exposure to grass court tennis. Our ambition is to help them develop not only their skills on grass, but a love for the surface, which will stand them in good stead for their participation at the Junior Championships, and hopefully, The Championships in future years.”

Scott Lloyd, Chief Executive of the LTA, commented:

“The introduction of the Junior International Nottingham is a very positive development for junior tennis, and as the premier grass court nation, we are proud to be able to deliver an additional tournament on grass for the best juniors in the world. We are looking forward to seeing some very competitive tennis being played over the next six days.”

The Junior International Nottingham starts today, Monday 24 June, and will run until Saturday 29 June when the singles and doubles finals are scheduled to be played

For more information, please contact:
AELTC Communications, communications@aeltc.com | +44 (0)208 971 2468

Chris Smith, LTA Communications, chris.smith@lta.org.uk

On-site contact in Nottingham
Ulrika Hogberg
International Projects Manager
The All England Lawn Tennis Club
uhog@aeltc.com | +44 (0)7867 485309

NOTES TO EDITORS: Junior International Nottingham
Junior International Nottingham is a Grade 1 ITF junior event, staged for the first time in 2019.
The event will take place from Monday 24 June to Saturday 29 June.
The draw sizes are a 48-player singles main draw with a 16-player singles qualifying draw, alongside a 24-team doubles draw.

About The All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC)
Known simply as “Wimbledon,” The Championships is the oldest of tennis’s four Grand Slams, the only major still played on grass, and one of the world’s highest-profile sporting events. Organised by The All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC) and based in London, Wimbledon has been a global sporting and cultural institution since 1877.
For more information, please visit: www.wimbledon.com | #wimbledon | @wimbledon

About the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA)
The LTA is the National Governing Body of tennis for Great Britain. We are here to govern and grow tennis, from grassroots participation through to the professional game. Our vision is “Tennis Opened Up” and we’re on a mission to grow tennis by making it relevant, accessible, welcoming and enjoyable. We work with schools, with volunteers, with coaches and with venues across the whole country. We also represent the interests of over 630,000 Members, men and women, girls and boys, playing on more than 23,000 courts. The LTA runs and supports a network of 11,500 approved tournaments for players of all ages, the four corner-stones of which are the premier grass-court events leading up to The Championships, Wimbledon: the Nature Valley Open (at Nottingham), the Nature Valley Classic (at Birmingham), the Fever-Tree Championships (at The Queen’s Club, London) and the Nature Valley International (at Eastbourne).
For further information about the LTA and tennis in Britain, please visit: www.lta.org.uk | @the_LTA