Press Office

Roger Draper Opens Performance Tennis Academy At The Gloucestershire Health And Racquets Club

The Performance Tennis Academy at The Gloucestershire Health and Racquets Club was officially opened on Sunday March 30 by Roger Draper, the Chief Executive of the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA). The occasion was coordinated with a tournament for the Performance Academy Juniors and exhibition matches involving Roger Draper, Esporta Tennis Professionals, top Esporta Academy players, and hosted by Rob Dearing, Tennis Development Manager for Gloucestershire.

Although still very new, the Academy already has many accolades; all 49 players in the Academy, who are all aged between 6 and 22, are in the top 300 in the country with five players (Brendan Shiner, Richard Owen, Laura Eales, Lillie Owen and Ben Tegg) currently inside the top 100. The club also has 15 'early targeted athletes', players under the age of ten who have shown the most promise of becoming professional tennis players.

Academy member, Tim Bradshaw, aged 22, has just returned from tournaments in Mexico and Canada where he achieved great success by gaining his first world ranking point. He is currently playing on the men's international circuit and is competing in the Futures Tour, a ranking-based tournament.

The Academy is run by Esporta Tennis Coaches; Colin Bennett, Mark Willis, Steve Worsley and Kim Harvey.

The newly built £14 million Gloucestershire Health and Racquets Club has a wider range of top quality facilities than any other club in the locality. It has six indoor and three outdoor courts, with two of the indoor courts being performance courts with a cushioned acrylic surface; the same type as the courts in the Australian open. The club has over 84,000 square foot of indoor space, a 25-metre indoor swimming pool, a 20-metre heated outdoor swimming pool, a luxurious sauna, steam room and spa together with an immanent Health and Beauty facility. The club's fitness arena houses over 165 pieces of state-of-the-art equipment, and three studios, two for aerobics, yoga and various other classes, and one for spinning classes. With its crèche with outdoor play area, the club is very much geared to the family, with a strong programme in place to keep the children active and entertained. And in the centre of the club is a modern and airy lounge with a bar and restaurant serving a full food menu from breakfast through to the evening meals.

For more information, please contact:

Esporta: Jonathan Colbourne
Head of Marketing Communications
Tel: 0118 912 3500
Mob: 075000123576
jonathan.colbourne@esporta.com

About Esporta

Esporta Health Clubs operate 55 premium health and leisure clubs in the UK. Facilities range from club to club and include state-of-the-art fitness arenas and exercise studios; indoor and outdoor pools; spas, saunas and steam rooms; vibrant restaurants and bars; health and beauty areas; indoor and outdoor racquets facilities and a vast range of children's activities.

Renowned for the quality of its Tennis Academy, Esporta was the first commercial operator in the UK to be awarded High Performance Status by the LTA (Lawn Tennis Association), and had more LTA accredited than any other UK club organisation.