LTA Youth Compete
Whatever time of year it is, there are junior tennis competitions taking place across the UK for children of all ages and abilities.
The LTA has three main focuses for helping you make the most out of competing in junior tennis:
- Team challenge - a great way to introduce kids to tennis competitions at their local clubs; fun, friendly, and no serious scoring with the benefits of team socialising
- Matchplay - perfect for your first individual competition, or getting some extra match practice in
- Local Tour - the quick-scoring junior tennis tournament
Whatever your level, we’re here to help you start competing in junior tennis tournaments at your own pace.
What is Team Challenge?
Get ready for some fun, competitive team tennis right at your local venue - this is the LTA Youth Team Challenge.
As part of the LTA Youth programme, Team Challenge is specially designed to get more junior players playing and competing with their friends.
Think short matches, small teams, quick fire. We cater for any number, so the more the merrier; mates, school friends or kids from the local club.
Yes, it’s competitive but everyone’s a winner – medals for the champions and certificates for the challengers.
There are two formats:
- ‘Match Weeks’ are run weekly, usually halfway through a term, and are a great way to play some competitive, fun matches in small teams.
- ’Festivals’ are bigger events that can take place at any time, but often on the weekends or during school holidays. These often involve the whole club and can even be themed around events, like Halloween.
What is LTA Youth Matchplay?
Matchplay is often a child’s first experience of individual competitive tennis. In two- or three-hour sessions they compete in both singles and doubles matches against players of a similar ability.
- Quick competitions for kids aged 10 and under, split into different age groups.
- Games last two hours for 8U and 9U and three hours for 10U and yellow ball age groups.
- The 10U and yellow ball age groups will be using one FAST4 set (see below) whilst 8U and 9U will use one match tie-break to 10 points.
What is Local Tour?
Local Tour (you might have known it as LTA County Tour - Grade 5) offers a range of tournaments throughout the year for children aged 18 and under. These competitions give players their first opportunity to earn real Recent Form or LTA Ranking points!
For kids 9 and under, these tournaments normally last half a day and use a simple format - one match tiebreak to 10 points for players competing with an orange or red ball. Easy.
For players aged 10-18 it could still be half a day or ramp up to a full day. Then it’s time for FAST4 scoring!
