National Tennis Centre (United Kingdom)
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The United Kingdom's National Tennis Centre is currently under construction at Roehampton in south west London, and it is due to open in late 2006.
The centre is being built by the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA). It will have 16 outdoor courts, covering all the Grand Slam surfaces, 6 indoor courts, a gymnasium and sports science and medical facilities. It will also house the administration of the LTA, which is currently based at Kensington closer to central London.
The National Tennis Centre is being built in response to a 1999 review by the LTA of the reasons for its sustained failure to produce world class tennis players (Tim Henman didn't come up through the LTA system, Andrew Murray spent his early and mid teens in Spain and Greg Rusedski learned to play in Canada). It is inspired by the national tennis centres in the more successful tennis nations of France, Belgium, Spain, Italy, Switzerland and the United States and will be a focus for high performance players and coaches.
At present the LTA's elite training facilities are at Queen's Club, but they are inadequate for the purpose and Queen's is better known as a social club for wealthy Londoners than as a centre of sporting excellence. The LTA hopes that relocating to a facility dedicated to competitive tennis will help to bring about new culture in British tennis in which competition is given priority rather than social tennis. It has put Queen's Club up for sale on a long lease. The south west London location has been chosen because it is close to the venue of the Wimbledon Championships and many leading British players live in the area.
