Camden New Journal - Match Point

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Camden Sports - MATCH POINT by ROB ACHILLE
Published: 9 July 2009

Rob Achille is a tennis development officer at Islington Tennis Centre

I have a dream of our winner at Wimbledon

SO the wait for a British male player to make a Wimbledon final goes on.
Andy Murray looks the most likely, but where are our future champions going to come from? Well, the Lawn Tennis Association is finally getting its act together by funding young players based at performance centres like Islington Tennis Centre in Market Road.
In addition to the three promising 10-year-olds who are carving up the Middlesex tournaments, there is also the number one under-12 girl in the country. This success is a result of recognising talent at an early age and giving them the best coaching and, perhaps most importantly, obtaining the necessary funding, in order to compete at the highest level.
So how are we going to tap into the undeniable talent out there?
First we need the
co-operation of schools, which is why we have developed a resource which includes a virtual tennis coach: all the teacher has to do is run the DVD and all the technical aspects are seen on the screen.
Next, we have to make tennis more accessible by providing free courts in parks and affordable coaching too.
Martin Luther King once had a dream and so do I.
It’s Centre Court at Wimbledon and one of the players is from an inner-city borough and that is the player holding the trophy.

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