East of Scotland Tennis agree first partnership in Scotland with Tennis First

East of Scotland Tennis has agreed a partnership with Tennis First to help them develop a world class under-10s programme for young players in the area.

Tennis First, whose alumni include Emma Raducanu and Jack Draper, carefully selects partners to work with across the UK to deliver ‘Get Ready!’, their high quality u10 performance programme which is designed to increase the standard and number of British juniors starting out on their international tennis journey.

It is the first partnership Tennis First has signed in Scotland, making East of Scotland Tennis the only district in Scotland they will be working with. The partnership will give players in the area the chance to compete and train with the best players in their age group, and receive coaching and advice in areas such as conditioning, psychology and nutrition.

Get Ready! will be managed by East of Scotland LTA Head of Performance Callum Lloyd and his team, with the new partnership helping East of Scotland towards its goal of enabling more young players to compete at European level.

Viki Mendelssohn, Chair of East of Scotland LTA commented:

“When we were approached by Tennis First to be the inaugural Scottish centre for their programme we were both honoured and excited by the opportunity. Get Ready! will give players the opportunity to go through a tried and tested world class training programme developed by Programme Director and WTA coach Suzi Riley.

“If players work hard and successfully complete the programme over the three year period it should mean we will have more players able to compete in Europe at Junior level which is a priority for us. This is a huge opportunity for us, and I believe it will help make our programme among the best in the UK.”

Suzi Riley, who heads-up the Get Ready! programme, assessed the East of Scotland Tennis set-up and was particularly impressed with the current support for youngsters. She’s excited to see how this can be developed further with the help of Tennis First.

Suzi Riley, the lead coach at Tennis First said:

“We’re working hard to provide further opportunities to better prepare players for the highest level of international competition. We’ve partnered with centres who we believe can create world class programmes and deliver inspiring high performance training environments.

“We’re excited to be expanding in 2024 and look forward to supporting more players on their tennis journey.”

Alumni of Tennis First include US Open Champion Emma Raducanu, Davis Cup Champion Kyle Edmund, 6 time Grand Slam Double Champion Joe Salisbury and rising star Jack Draper. Their overall goals if for the players they support to is to reach a professional ATP / WTA singles ranking within the Top 250 and 17 players have achieved this milestone to date.