World’s biggest junior tennis tournament, Nike Junior Tour, confirms UK sponsor

Europe’s largest tennis coaching organisation, Registro de Profesional Tenis (RPT) has confirmed it is continuing with its UK sponsorship of the world’s biggest junior tennis tournament – the Nike Junior Tour - as part of its "Grow The Game" strategy. The tournament, in its sixth year, is run across twenty-seven countries with local, national and international stages with the UK Masters Final this year (2009) being at the National Indoor Tennis Centre, Roehampton in mid-September and the International Masters during October in the Dominican Republic.

Previous players have included world number six Juan Martin Del Potro, France’s Gail Monfils and world number three Rafael Nadal (right), who won the event on three occasions. 2009 has seen over 60,000 entries with over 3,000 UK entries across seventeen tournaments in both under 12 and under 14 age groups. According to the RPT, whose training is behind the likes of Andy Murray and Rafael Nadal, the tournament is designed for youngsters of all standards to learn about the game and improve their competitive spirit and for the better players the opportunity of playing on the international stage. Adrian Rattenbury, RPT UK Director, said: "I’m delighted RPT has again supported this prestigious event. The beauty of it is that it holds the dream of international matches and yet anybody can play, whatever your standard". All matches and tournaments are sanctioned by the LTA but the RPT coaching team administer and manage the UK operation. The 2009 National Tour is coming to a close and the national masters final will be announced shortly.       •   World No.2 Andy Murray was coached at the Sanchez-Casal Academy between the ages of 14-17 by RPT certified coaches   •   World No. 3 Rafael Nadal is coached by his RPT trained uncle Tony   •   Five Spanish players in the top twenty   •   Eighteen of Spain’s top twenty players are trained by RPT coaches   •   The Spanish Tennis Federation has an annual budget of only £3million compared to the LTA’s income of £37.5million   •   The RPT is the fastest growing coaching organisation in the world