Tennis: Record profits for Wimbledon
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Your support makes all the difference.Wimbledon made a record profit of pounds 29.1m at the 1996 championships. The profit, pounds 1.2m more than the previous record set in 1995, is the icing on the cake for the Lawn Tennis Association, who receive this vast surplus from the All England Club each year for the improvement of the game in Britain.
Ian Peacock, who retires as LTA chief executive at the end of the year, believes that this year has been one of "exciting progress for British tennis both on and off the court''.
For the first time in 18 years, Britain has two men, Tim Henman (at 29) and Greg Rusedski (48), ranked in the world's top 50. "Their joint ranking places Britain ninth in the world's men's rankings, while Martin Lee and James Trotman place us in eighth position in the junior boys' rankings,'' Peacock says.
"Amongst the girls the position is less spectacular but there has been a steady rise in the rankings of our players this year, albeit from a modest base, and the achievement of our girls in being runners-up in the world 14-and-under team championships gives cause for some optimism for the future."
During the year, the first British ATP Tour event on clay was staged at Bournemouth in September; a new coach licensing scheme was introduced to raise the standards of British coaching; 38 county development officers was appointed to assist the game at grass roots level; while Jeremy Bates takes over as manager of national training on 1 January.
Five more indoor centres had been opened, making a total of 46 either in operation or construction and a further six training centres were opened,to bring the total to 22.
Peacock praised the All England Club. He said: "Over the last 10 years, thanks to the success of the Wimbledon championships, the LTA has been able to re-build the infrastructure for tennis in this country.
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