Tennis Australia enhances player pathway for girls and women

As part of a drive to attract more girls to the sport and keep them playing longer, Tennis Australia is expanding the performance team and recruiting a new Women’s Professional Tennis Coordinator.

Working closely with Nicole Pratt, the former Australian No.1 and now Head of Women’s Tennis, the successful candidate will assist in the development and formulation of a High Performance Women’s Tennis strategy looking at a range of activities and initiatives to ensure female tennis players are attracted to the sport, supported within the game and provided with suitable opportunities for growth.

The role will be focussed on Talent Identification, nurturing and developing young female talent with the aim of creating an environment that encourages girls to stay in the sport.

Commenting on the new role, Pratt stated “we’re really proud of the fact that our national ANZ Tennis Hot Shots program has an almost equal split of boys and girls aged between five and 12 taking part.

“Our next challenge is to give the girls who enjoy playing tennis in their primary school years a compelling reason to stay in the sport. This will be a big focus for the person in this new role.

“Our player pathway is already in pretty good shape and the building blocks are in place to develop new programs and provide more professional development and opportunities for female players and coaches.”

Growing and developing the women’s game at all levels is a priority for Tennis Australia. Along with high performance initiatives, participation programs include ANZ Tennis Hot Shots, Cardio Tennis and FAST4, the new short tennis format designed to fit into today’s busy lifestyle.

As well as supporting, growing and promoting women’s tennis in Australia, Tennis Australia Chief Executive and Australian Open Tournament Director Craig Tiley has a broader equality agenda. As a founding member of the Elite Sports Male Champions of Change, he’s joined with other sporting heads to increase leadership opportunities, promote workplace flexibility and create workplace change.

To highlight this mission the inaugural Australian Open Celebration of Inspirational Women event will be presented as part of women’s semi final day on Thursday 28th January.

The event and on-court recognition ceremony has been designed to celebrate inspirational women in tennis, sport and fields as diverse as human rights, medicine, the arts, sports, business and media.

Tiley explains “with tennis as one of the only professional sports offering equal opportunity, exposure and prize money we are in a really strong position to create more support and opportunities for women and help ensure that gender equality can cease to be a problem for future generations.

“Growing our Women’s Tennis team is an integral part of our commitment to achieving this and we look forward to recruiting someone with the same vision and drive as us who can help really make a difference in this space.”

The new Women’s Professional Tennis Coordinator will be a full time position based at Tennis Australia’s National Academy in Melbourne.

Applications close 31st January 2016.

Click here for more information on the vacancy.

Image: ANZ Tennis Hot Shots.

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