AFTER 10 years of producing more county and national level players than any other tennis club in Hampshire, Totally Tennis have been rewarded with National Performance Centre accreditation.

The Lawn Tennis Association award has been achieved by just five tennis clubs in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.

The accreditation is great news for the Totally Tennis coaching team, who have been recognised as successful in producing performance players.

Also, the performance programme at Totally Tennis, which includes matchplays and physical training, is one of the top three per cent in Britain.

The National Performance Centre status is also great news for players at the centre, who, with help from funding from the LTA and a £15,000 contribution from Totally Tennis itself, will benefit from an enhanced programme in the future.

The club is also seeking an organisation who will jointly sponsor the centre with the Gazette, who have supported the performance programme since the opening of the indoor courts over a year ago.

Paul Hutchins, performance centre project manager for the LTA and a former Davis Cup captain, said: "Totally Tennis has been a market leader in the way it is set up and run. They are the leading performance centre in the county by far and I only wish there were 300 Totally Tennis across the country."

Nigel Long, Totally Tennis director said: "This new status is simply excellent news for Totally Tennis.

"It will vastly increase our ability to provide a varied programme for talented children and help us target such children from a variety of sources from an earlier age.

"Our hope is that with performance centre status, we will produce more national players and with the help of another sponsor, we could even double what we are achieving now."

The Performance Centre accreditation scheme is a national Lawn Tennis Association initiative that aims to have 200 clubs and centres across the country accredited by the end of the year.

The aim is to raise performance standards through clubs and bring British tennis in line with European counterparts by producing 10 or 15 national and international players at each age group, where there are currently just three.

It is hoped that the new status will help attract investment locally to make such ambitions a reality.