AEGON GB Davis Cup doubles pair, Ken Skupski and Colin Fleming, took a short respite from preparations for the forthcoming Davis Cup clash against Turkey to visit Eastbourne Sports Park, to see for themselves how tennis is changing within local parks.
Eastbourne Sports Park was recently awarded beacon site status by the Tennis Foundation in recognition of their high quality, affordable community tennis programmes.
The three-court indoor facility in Eastbourne has been selected for the accolade along with 44 other Beacon sites across the country and is one of the first community sites to achieve the status, which recognises the best community-focused facilities, as part of AEGON Parks Tennis.
AEGON Parks Tennis aims to increase community access to tennis in parks and communities nationwide.
Led by the Tennis Foundation and supported by the LTA, AEGON Parks Tennis is a key programme in British tennis’ drive to increase participation and grow tennis at all levels. The long-term aim is to have one beacon site acting as a centre of community tennis excellence in each of the 442 local authorities in Britain.
Colin Fleming, from Linlithgow, Scotland, and Liverpool’s Ken Skupski both enjoyed having a hit with local juniors and seeing how tennis is thriving park sites such as Eastbourne Sports Park to enable more people to get involved in tennis.
After a rewarding day spending time with players from the local community, Ken Skupski said:
“It was great fun. It’s nice to give something back to the kids. There’s a lot of great talent here which is good for British tennis. It’s great for the locals to be able to come out and support us but also to see the level of what they could be one day in the future.”
The visit offered the players some time-out from the team’s training in the build up to the tie.
Doubles partner, Colin Fleming, said: “We’ve had a good week’s training, and it’s nice to come out and relax and do things like this, but we are all focusing on the tie.”
The British duo are set to join singles players Jamie Baker and James Ward in the Europe/Africa Zone Group II tie which will take place on the grass courts of Devonshire Park in Eastbourne from the 9th -11th July.
The British No. 1’s have enjoyed a run of good form of late and will contest their match on Sunday. Speaking ahead of the tie, Colin Fleming said;
“We’ve had a great week so far. All our form coming into the tie has been good. Ken and I played well back here at Eastbourne at the AEGON International last month, and at Wimbledon, and the singles boys had a great week in Manchester, so we’re ready to go.”
-ENDS-
Sophie Ashcroft
Sponsorship Media Relations Manager
AEGON UK
Tel: 0131 549 2224
Mob: 07740 897932
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