LTA launches campaign with MATTA to drive female participation
The LTA has launched a nationwide campaign with creative agency MATTA to encourage more women across the UK to return to tennis, as interest in the women’s game has reached record levels.
The campaign, Make Your Return to Tennis, has been designed to inspire women aged 25–50 to take up the sport again and has focused on local park courts as accessible and affordable entry points.
It has followed a 6% year-on-year growth in adult female tennis participation, and comes on the back of heightened visibility for women’s tennis in the UK, including record attendances at the inaugural two-week HSBC Championships at The Queen’s Club – which drew over 62,000 fans.
The campaign has highlighted tennis as a flexible and inclusive sport, offering physical and mental health benefits, and aims to reduce key barriers to re-entry, such as body confidence, time pressures and lack of confidence in returning. Content features long-form and short-form videos alongside static assets, distributed across paid and owned channels.
British authors and broadcasters Giovanna Fletcher and Candice Brathwaite have fronted the campaign, sharing their personal experiences with tennis as working mothers and public figures, and encouraging women to prioritise time for themselves through the sport.
Fletcher has supported the initiative through her Happy Mum, Happy Baby podcast, while Brathwaite has reflected on her reconnection with exercise and confidence through tennis.
The campaign has launched during Wimbledon and alongside wider LTA efforts to reduce the gender gap in participation, which still exists despite tennis being one of the UK’s most gender-balanced sports.
With thousands of refurbished park courts and an online booking system in place, the LTA has aimed to convert increased interest in professional women’s tennis into long-term participation across the country.
Caroline Lepetit, Head of Customer Strategy & Marketing, LTA, said, “Tennis is one of the most gender-balanced sports, but there is still a gap between male and female participation.
“With 1000s of refurbished courts in local parks, clear booking tools, and inspiring content from relatable voices, we’re making it easier than ever for more women to get on court.”
Matt Hunt, Executive Strategy Director at MATTA, said, “Every creative decision from who we cast to how we filmed was made with real-life women in mind.
“We didn’t want to lecture or sugar-coat the barriers. Instead, we created content that reflects the real lives of women and offers tennis as something joyful, achievable and worth reclaiming.”
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