Tennis fans across the world - especially those in the UK - won’t ever forget the historic US Open Final that aired on Prime Video in 2021: Emma Raducanu (UK) vs Leylah Fernandez (Canada).
Emma’s historic win led Prime Video to partner with the LTA and create the Prime Video LTA Youth Girls programme; a multi-year programme specifically designed to remove the barriers young girls face when starting to learn and enjoy tennis. To remove those barriers, the programme helps to provide all-girls classes, focuses on fun over competition and includes female role models within the coaching setup.
As part of the Prime Video LTA Youth Girls Programme, Grand-Slam winner and LTA Youth ambassador Emma Raducanu grabbed her tennis racket to deliver a fun-filled coaching session for a group of aspiring young players.
Emma worked with tennis coach Tessa Bass to deliver the session at Preston Lawn Tennis Club in Brighton last week. The Prime Video LTA Youth Girls programme has already inspired over 3,000 players to pick up a racket and try tennis for the first time, delivering over 18,000 hours of coaching so far in 2023.
Of these players over 1,800 have booked onto additional follow-on coaching courses and over 1,200 have competed in their first Team Challenge competition since joining the programme, demonstrating the programme’s lasting legacy in bringing more players into the sport at a grassroots level.
“Speaking to some of the children and hearing them say ‘we picked up a racket because of you’ is really nice to hear.”
Preston Lawn Tennis Club is just one of hundreds of sessions being delivered nationwide as part of the multi-year programme, launched this year to train the next generation of female players, based on the LTA’s research and insight into the barriers and challenges facing girls that impact their participation in sport. In February 2023, the LTA trained over 250 coaches across the country on the special curriculum which also includes a t-shirt, racket and ball for the girls taking part.
Speaking about taking part in the programme, Emma Raducanu said: “I’ve been involved for over two years now and it’s a really fun initiative for me to give back and hopefully inspire young kids and coaches to get involved in tennis. Some of the stats that I’ve seen are incredible, with over 3,000 girls who’ve joined to play tennis because of this campaign.
“In a group you feel less on the spot, less pressure, less eyes on you and sometimes you want that. It’s always good to mix up who you’re playing with but when you’re just starting out it’s a really fun and interactive way for young kids to learn new skills and especially social skills.
“Speaking to some of the children and hearing them say ‘we picked up a racket because of you’ is really nice to hear.”
Tessa Bass, an LTA Level 3 accredited coach and part of the Prime Video LTA Youth Girls programme said: “As a female coach I feel that it's my role to engage, inspire and retain girls in tennis. It's really important to create a friendly energy on court so that the girls get to know each other and become friends. My experience has shown that if new friends are made on the court, then the girls are more likely to keep going!”
Prime Video LTA Youth Girls is 100% funded by Amazon’s seven figure reinvestment of broadcast fees from Emma Raducanu’s historic US Open final in 2021, and is used to train the coaches, produce training kits, support for hosting school roadshows, promotional events and more. Also included in Prime Video’s investment is rackets, balls and t-shirts for all girls who sign-up to the programme, to ensure that equipment is not a barrier to participation for families across the UK.
Prime Video LTA Youth Girls is an important part of the LTA’s support for women and girls within tennis, which, through its ‘She Rallies’ ambition, is focused on driving participation, growing the female workforce and increasing visibility for women in tennis.
Prime Video is the exclusive broadcaster of ATP and WTA Tour tennis in the UK and Ireland through to the end of this year. This is alongside a wide selection of live sport on Prime Video globally, including Premier League football in the UK, Ligue 1 football and Roland-Garros tennis in France, UEFA Champions League football in Germany, Italy and in the UK from 2024, NFL Thursday Night Football in the United States, New Zealand Cricket in India and more.
Check out more of Prime Video’s growing line-up of sports content, including All or Nothing: Arsenal, We Are Newcastle United, Andy Murray: Resurfacing, Ben Stokes: Phoenix from the Ashes, Rooney, Sir Alex Ferguson: Never Give In, The Test and more.
