By Ross Parry and Elsa Wiedfeld
A tennis tournament director has aimed to address accessibility to the game by offering wildcards to local youth players to play in the Lexus Liverpool International Tennis Tournament.
Tournament Director, Anders Borg, said: “My aim is to take tennis out of the snobbish environment and bring it out to the people”.
The tournament is currently underway at Liverpool Tennis Centre.
It started on the 31st of January and will last until the 13th of February 2026.
Junior players from 30 different countries have travelled to Merseyside to compete in the tournament.
Local youngster Abi Redman’s success in 2024 will inspire this year’s local competitors to follow in her footsteps.
She won the tournament after getting a wildcard. This led to her to obtaining a tennis scholarship from a college in the USA.
This tournament is a pathway into a professional career for the young players who perform well here.
Borg said: “A lot of these players are aiming to become professionals, but the ones who aren’t are looking to go to college in America and get a scholarship, and be part of a college team”.
History shows that this tournament has the potential to kickstart a career for a player.
British number 1 Emma Raducanu won the November 2015 edition, when she was just 13 years old.
ITF supervisor, Gill Milne, said: “We are here to develop the players of the future”.
She added: “It gives local players an equal chance to gain experience against high quality opponents, who often have wealthy parents, and don’t get the opportunity to travel the world to these tournaments”.
The tournament awards 10 to 15 wildcards across three events each year.
This offers local players who do not have a ranking the opportunity to test themselves against international players.
Beyond the tournament, Anders Borg is working on introducing tennis early to local school kids to bring down class barriers surrounding the sport.
He said: “Part of our mission is to get as many kids as possible to pick up tennis as a sport, with football being the most popular in the area”.
Borg is responsible for the ITF under-18 events in Liverpool, as well as the under-14 Tennis Europe event taking place simultaneously on the Wirral.
He also organises the Liverpool International Tennis Tournament for adults, taking place in June at Liverpool Cricket Club.
Readers can find out more about the tournament at www.liverpooltennis.co.uk.
(Featured Image by Elsa Wiedfeld)
