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Tennis in the United Kingdom - Statistics & Facts

Tennis in its modern form can trace its origins back to England in 1873, when Major Walton Clopton Wingfield drew up the first set of rules for lawn tennis. Four years later, the world’s oldest tennis competition, the Wimbledon Championships, was held at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club’s grounds for the first time, and the sport has taken root in the United Kingdom ever since. In recent years, there has been an increased interest in the sport at the grassroots level, with the number of tennis players in Great Britain increasing by around 10 percent between 2018 and 2022. While tennis court numbers in Great Britain fell by nearly 30 percent in that same space of time, an initiative called the Park Tennis Court Programme was launched principally by the government of the United Kingdom in 2023 to address the shortage of modernized tennis courts in British public parks. As of March 2024, nearly 1,800 public tennis courts had been renovated under the scheme.

Great Britain’s governing body for tennis: what does the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) do?

As the national governing body for tennis, the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) is the prime authority responsible for developing tennis in Great Britain. As well as partially funding the Park Tennis Court Programme, the LTA also receives over two million British pounds annually in grants from Sport England, which it invests in tennis. However, funding from Sport England only forms a small share of the LTA’s overall revenue, with Wimbledon providing the Association with its largest revenue stream, often amounting to over 45 million British pounds a year. Regarding the LTA’s operating expenditure, the largest share is spent on major events and commercial and marketing-related enterprises, while spending on participation is the second-largest expenditure.

How many people watch Wimbledon?

As one of the sport's four Grand Slam tournaments, Wimbledon is the biggest tennis event in the British sporting calendar. Accordingly, tens of millions tuned in to watch the BBC’s coverage of Wimbledon in 2023, with a peak audience of 11.3 million watching the 2023 gentlemen's singles final between Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz. That year, Alcaraz denied Djokovic the opportunity to match Roger Federer’s record of most men’s singles Wimbledon titles won. Meanwhile, attendance at Wimbledon has risen in recent years, increasing by nearly 60 thousand between 2017 and 2023. This increased interest in attending Wimbledon is congruous with the stature of the sport in the United Kingdom, with the UK having one of the largest shares of tennis fans worldwide in 2023.
This text provides general information. Statista assumes no liability for the information given being complete or correct. Due to varying update cycles, statistics can display more up-to-date data than referenced in the text.
Published by Statista Research Department, Mar 7, 2024

Key insights

Number of tennis players in Great Britain
3.31m
Number of tennis courts in Great Britain
16,800
Share of children playing tennis in England
8.4%
Get more insights

Editor’s Picks Current statistics on this topic

Revenue of the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) in Great Britain from 2014 to 2022, by source (in million GBP)

Individual Sports

GB: revenue breakdown of the Lawn Tennis Association 2014-2022

Number of tennis participants in England from 2016 to 2022

Sports Participation

Tennis participation in England 2016-2022

Share of children participating in tennis in the last week in England from 2017/18 to 2022/23

Sports Participation

Children participating in tennis in England 2017-2023

Related topics

Recommended

5

Recommended statistics

Participation

6

Participation

Governing body: Lawn Tennis Association

7

Governing body: Lawn Tennis Association

Funding

4

Funding

The Wimbledon Championships

6

The Wimbledon Championships

Media and fan engagement

5

Media and fan engagement

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Tennis
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Sport in Wales (UK)
Sport in Wales (UK)
Sport in England: Public Funding and Participation in the UK
Sport in England: Public Funding and Participation in the UK
Sport club memberships in the United Kingdom (UK)
Sport club memberships in the United Kingdom (UK)
Sport in Scotland (UK)
Sport in Scotland (UK)
Sport in Northern Ireland
Sport in Northern Ireland
The Wimbledon Championships
The Wimbledon Championships

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