While it is generally accepted that tennis originated in France around 1,000 years ago, the modern form of the sport dates back to 1873 in England. That year, Major Walton Clopton Wingfield wrote the first set of rules for what he called Sphairistiké, but is now known as lawn tennis. Four years later, the oldest tennis competition in the world, the
was first held on the grounds of the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, and since then the sport has flourished in the United Kingdom.
How many people play tennis in the UK?
In recent years there has been a growing interest in tennis at the grassroots level, with number of adult tennis players in England increasing by around 20 percent between 2018/19 and 2023/24. Furthermore, while tennis court numbers in Great Britain fell by almost 30% between 2018 and 2022, an initiative called the Park Tennis Court Program was launched primarily by the United Kingdom government in 2023 to address the shortage of upgraded tennis courts in British public parks. By June 2025, nearly 2,800 public tennis courts had been renovated as part of the program.
What are the responsibilities of the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA)?
As the national governing body for tennis, the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) is the principal authority responsible for the development of tennis in Great Britain. As well as part-funding the Park Tennis Court programme, the LTA also receives over £2 million a year in Sport England grantswhich he reinvested in tennis. However, Sport England funding represents only a small part of the LTA’s overall turnoverWimbledon providing the Association with its largest source of income, often amounting to over £50 million in 2024. LTA operating expensesthe largest share is spent on large events and commercial and marketing-related ventures, while attendance expenses are the second largest spending category.
How many people watch Wimbledon?
As one of four tennis players Grand Slam tournamentsWimbledon is one of the biggest sporting events on the British sporting calendar. As a result, there were more than 50 million stream of BBC coverage of Wimbledon in 2025, with a peak audience of 8.8 million watching the men’s singles final that year between Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner. That year, Sinner denied Alcaraz the chance to win a third Wimbledon title on the rebound. In the meantime, presence at Wimbledon has grown in recent years, reaching an all-time high of nearly 550,000 participants. This increased interest in Wimbledon is in keeping with the stature of the sport in the UK, with the UK being one of the largest share of tennis fans in the world in 2023.
This text provides general information. Statista assumes no responsibility for the completeness or accuracy of the information provided. Due to different update cycles, statistics may show more up-to-date data than that referenced in the text.
