LTA’s stance hinders local tennis players
TENNIS training facilities are currently ‘rammed’ but it may be some time before local players can get into the swing of competition.
Even given Jersey’s intention to stage a singles tournament this month, Guernsey tennis and padel coach Rob West does not expect to capitalise on Guernsey’s lack of coronavirus cases and match this early start.
But he has seen a great number of bookings for both singles and doubles play on the Guernsey Tennis Centre courts.
The BNP Paribas Junior Open is set for 27 July, one day after the end of the LTA’s current suspension period, and it seems that the governing body could have a significant say in proceedings.
‘We are expecting them to extend that suspension and that’s a UK-wide thing,’ admitted West.
‘If they do extend that, we are going to have to think what we do now.’
But there are several glimmers of hope to this apparently troubling situation.
West has considered seeing whether the LTA will take Guernsey’s favourable situation into account and even if not, they are capable of running the event on their own accord.
‘We could run it as a local event for local juniors and not do it under the LTA banner, and do it as a “closed” [no visitors].
‘There’s nothing stopping us from doing that.
‘Following that, the Island Champs are scheduled for the end of August and the first couple weeks of September as normal, and there’s no reason why that will not happen.’
The inter-insular fixtures scheduled for the September to November period remain dependent on travel restrictions.
