The mother of a junior tennis champion today said her daughter will no longer be able to practise at a top court after it started charging fees.
Ten-year-old MJ Changwereza arrived for her regular weekend practice at the Lawn Tennis Association’s National Tennis Centre in Roehampton to find that an indoor court now costs £12 an hour to hire.
MJ has won several high-profile tournaments but her mother, Maria, today criticised the organisation for holding back disadvantaged players.
Mrs Changwereza, 46, from Sutton, said: “MJ has been playing tennis since she was four and we’ve always been able to play for free at the NTC.
“I wrote an email explaining we couldn’t afford it, but they said we still have to pay. MJ is very upset — she says she doesn’t want to stop tennis and she wishes she could ask for help.” Mrs Changwereza receives £127 in benefits a week, a £20 LTA grant and a £60 weekly donation from a family friend towards a tennis coach.
She spends £125 per week on MJ’s tennis but the new NTC fees for an indoor court would take the total to £197. With winter approaching, she said she cannot afford for her daughter to continue to play.
MJ’s coach, Lou Laznicky, said she was “one of the best I’ve ever seen. Unfortunately, to make it big in tennis you need to have money”.
The LTA today said it was “committed to supporting junior players to enable them to reach their potential and that includes offering funded players an element of free tennis at the NTC”.
It added: “We are constantly looking at ways to improve this offering, and so access to the NTC for these players is currently under review. We are also looking at ways to expand our community-focused programmes to enable increasingly more people to play tennis at the NTC.”
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Correction: This article originally reported that MJ Changwereza won the LTA’s Aegon Summer National Tour Finals. In fact, the 2013 winner of the tournmant was Sophia Underwood (17/1/14)
