By Sean Purdie

A local tennis club owner is looking to do his part for grass-root tennis as the Lawn’s Tennis Association have rolled out new and improved programmes to increase tennis participation.

Eric Flack, the owner of Drumchapel Tennis Club, has made impressive strides in the grass-root scene in recent years and has made it their mission to make tennis available to all. In an attempt to strive for better grass-root participation the Lawn’s Tennis Association have also rolled out new programmes across the U.K.

Flack stated that the new initiatives by the LTA are: “Helping a lot already” and when asked if we do enough to promote grass-root tennis he added:

“I think that we do a lot of work in the grass-root area, but of course you can always do more, but we are definitely punching above our weight”.

“The new funding from the LTA is making big differences all over the country”

Drumchapel Tennis Club’s newly installed court & their 2017 Scottish Award banner

The club was awarded Community Venue of the year, by Tennis Scotland.  This award takes many aspects in to consideration. Every Saturday they offer free beginner tennis lessons to local children of the area, encouraging them to keep active and have fun with the sport, in hope that they continue to participate with the sport.

For years the tennis club has gathered funds and grants in order to maintain a high standard of equipment and courts.

The club have no intentions of slowing down either, having just installed new state of the art courts fitted with floodlights. However, these fancy new courts haven not steered the club away form their community based ideology, as the gates are always open to anyone of any level that wants to enjoy a game of tennis.

For the last decade Andy Murray has been the sole hope for British tennis. The Scot has held the weight of the nation on his shoulders year after year, but surely we should have more to offer as a nation than just one top-level competitor every lifetime?

This week is the start of the ninth and final ATP World Tour Masters 1000 of the year. Tennis’ biggest hitters, Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer and Rafa Nadal are all set to take part in this years event, with Djokovic looking to steal the World No. 1 spot from Nadal.

Britain’s number one Kyle Edmund’s hopes of playing at this years open was over before it even started, after he was forced to withdraw due to injury. The 23 year-old achieved a career high earlier on in the year after he reached the semi-final of the Australian Open.

With Andy Murray out injured after undergoing surgery, Edmund climbed to British number one and fourteenth in the World. The young Englishmen looks to have an extremely bright future ahead of him, managing to qualify for three of this years Grand Slam’s.

Also being in and around the high ranking ATP tournaments throughout the year. During Murray’s time away from the game, he has helped to give the young prospect tips on how to improve their game and reach that next level.

Djokovic looks to be back to his best after dropping outside of the top 10 World rankings, for the first time in over a decade, after suffering a bad injury to his wrist. The Serb has enjoyed a fruitful 2018, climbing up the rankings to an impressive second spot, winning two Grand Slam’s so far, this year.

The number two seed has sparked some controversy ahead of his opener against Portugal’s Joao Sousa. Due to much of the media casting serious concerns over the likelihood that Djokovic could not find the form that gave him so much success, Novak hit back at those claims.

During an interview with the Express he stated that he was “not surprised” at his resurgence of form over the last five months. Critics have dubbed Novak as being “arrogant” ahead of his Paris Masters opening match.

If Djokovic puts in a strong showing throughout the tail end of the season he will be able to clinch the number one spot from in-form Rafa Nadal.