National Tennis Centre (United Kingdom)
The United Kingdom's National Tennis Centre at Roehampton in south west London is the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA)'s high performance training facility. It was officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II on 29 March 2007.
The centre has 16 outdoor courts, covering all the Grand Slam surfaces, 6 indoor courts, a gymnasium and sports science and medical facilities. It also houses the administration of the LTA, which was previously based at the Queen's Club in West Kensington.
The National Tennis Centre was built in response to a 1999 review by the LTA of the reasons for its sustained failure to produce world class tennis players (the only British players of either sex to make the world top fifty in the 1990s were Tim Henman, who did not come up through the LTA system, and Greg Rusedski, who learned to play in Canada). It was inspired by the national tennis centres in the more successful tennis nations of France, Belgium, Spain, Italy, Switzerland and the United States and serves as a focus for high performance players and coaches.
Previously the LTA's elite training facilities were at Queen's Club, but they were 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 sold Queen's Club back to the club members. The south west London location was chosen because it is close to the All England Club, home of the Wimbledon Championships, and many leading British players live in the area.
The National Tennis Centre was designed in 2007 by Hopkins Architects, the designers of Portcullis House Westminster, London, UK in 2000 with offices for 210 MPs and a suite of Select Committee Rooms, across the road from Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament.
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