Following Andy Murray’s Wimbledon success, we've checked our stats and noticed that tennis interest levels have soared for the coming weekend. This adds to an already TFF record breaking Summer and we believe it’s due to Andy’s super summer of tennis with him reaching the French Open final and winning both the Queen’s Club tournament and Wimbledon.

Paul Jessop, CEO of Tennis For Free commented, "We checked registrations the morning after Andy won Wimbledon for next weekend’s TFF sessions throughout the UK and they’ve soared. We were already thrilled to see large gains of new tennis players compared to this time last year which we believe is due to Andy’s successful summer. The constant mention of the sport in the press and particularly the TV coverage have got people thinking about trying out tennis perhaps more so than in previous years”.

In 2015, we reported 9193 attendances for TFF sessions up to this day last year. This year we've seen a comparative 13710 attendances, a 67% increase and a record number of bookings for this weekend sessions.

Aside from greater levels of attendees, councils are jumping on the participation band wagon too. The TFF site in Lampton Park, Hounslow, a very non-traditional tennis area launched two years ago on unused and dilapidated courts, has seen an incredible 2269 players register their on the TFF database since November 2014. That level of interest and regular participation on TFF sessions and other programmes on the park site has resulted in the council successfully securing funding to renovate the courts and turn them into a facility that the local community are proud of.

We are continuing to work in partnership with the LTA on a strategy to roll the scheme out to as many local authorities as possible over the coming years, both organisations believe in reinvigorating parks through a mix of free "walk on and play”, fun sessions and bespoke groups fitting for the local community’s needs, linking in with schools, community centres and local Clubs in order to maximise retention rates.