The LTA: How tech is helping to open up tennis
Growing a diverse and inclusive tennis community
For the past 130 years, the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA), Britain’s National Governing Body for Tennis, has been inspiring people to pick up a racket
Tennis is for everyone. You don’t have to be Emma Raducanu to get involved. You just need a racket, a ball, and somewhere to play. Plus, someone to hit the ball back!
To help more people get involved and grow a diverse and inclusive tennis community, the LTA created its vision of ‘Tennis Opened Up’. And as the LTA’s digital transformation partner, we’ve worked together to identify areas where digital tools could make a difference.
Any doubles player will tell you communication is crucial to a successful relationship. We spoke to hundreds of coaches, players, and other members of the tennis community, to discover how tennis could be opened up.
Opening Up Tennis For Good | LTA and Deloitte's Digital Vision
Here’s a short video highlighting the exciting journey we’ve been on so far and some of the ways we’ve collaborated on bringing the strategy to life.
The LTA wanted to make booking a court as easy as ordering a pizza – and for everyone to enjoy a slice of tennis, by making the sport more accessible
Together, we aced their ask. Since 2020, 1.5 million more adults are now playing tennis regularly in the UK.
By opening up thousands of courts and connecting players with their passionate network of volunteers and coaches, real change is happening. Clubs are growing their memberships and adapting to new systems, making the most of the LTA’s new, user-friendly digital capabilities, ways of working and technology infrastructure.
"We had this bold vision to open up tennis to make it more welcoming and enjoyable, and accessible for more people.
“It's gone way beyond what we ever thought we could achieve.”
Chris Pollard, Managing Director, Commercial and Operations, LTA
adults now playing tennis regularly
increase in lta.org's search engine result ranking
venues now LTA registered
more people participating in tennis regularly across Britain since 2020
Tennis Opened Up
From the very start, it was clear that creating a sense of belonging would be key. People are at the heart of the sports success, so we wanted to show this and make clear that tennis is for everyone, breaking down any perceived barriers to joining in.
Working with the LTA and some of its members we created Tennis Opened Up, a film series that captures the inspiring stories of people who’ve benefitted from tennis being more inclusive or who are playing a role in changing the game for the better.
From volunteers to coaches and players, more people are discovering the joys of tennis, learning and developing skills and benefiting from being active.
Using AI to improve accessibility
Our focus has always been on transformation enabled by technology and the event we held in the summer of 2023 is a great example of that. You’ve probably heard of Padel – in the UK alone, it’s bringing in 90,000 players every year and has been recognised as the world’s fastest growing sport.
With accessibility a main priority for the sport, our Deloitte Digital team worked with the LTA to create an immersive experience that fuses GenAI and Padel – RacketFusion.
Over six weeks, groups of 16–25-year-olds joined us at the Stratford Padel Club in London to help refine, drop, or re-imagine the AI-driven experiences we’d created, including a virtual courtside instructor and AI photo booth.
The project highlighted the importance of early real-world experimentation with AI – to be effective, it needs to be shaped by the people it serves. By doing this, we were able to make RacketFusion much more engaging and accessible.
We’re incredibly proud of our work with the LTA.
Together, by opening things up, we’ve broken barriers down and helped show that tennis is for everyone.
