On the eve of the 14th edition of Liverpool Hope University International Tennis Tournament organisers will attempt to set a new World Record.
Wednesday 17th of June at 11am children from local schools across the North West are invited down to Liverpool Cricket Club in an attempt to beat the record for the World´s Largest Tennis Coaching Lesson – marking the second time around for tournament organizers.
Last year the Liverpool International hosted the Guinness Book of World Records breaking attempt when 683 children, all with racquets, took an active part in a coaching lesson.
The session was filmed by two fixed cameras from start to finish with two independent witnesses monitoring proceedings. The footage, with no editing, was then sent to the Guinness Book of World Records for verification. In the days to follow, the Liverpool International received the message that the session was officially a qualified entry in the Guinness Book of World Records.
However this attempt has recently been broken by Judy Murray, mother of British nr. 1 Andy Murray. Judy held an event in which 770 children attended, breaking the record set in Liverpool.
In this year´s attempt, pupils from more than 20 schools are taking part from across Liverpool, Wirral, Bolton, Chester, Bolton and Manchester. There will be 25 junior sports leaders from Calderstones School on hand to support with the tennis lesson.
Furthermore, 30 tennis coaches from Tennis Clubs across Liverpool will be on hand to assist with the record attempt. Tennis Clubs that are to be involved include Wavertree, Palmerston, Rainford and Liverpool Cricket Club.
Tournament organisers are ‘optimistic but not certain’ the record will be broken.
Anders Borg, Tournament Director, said:
“We are looking forward to attempting to beat the world record again – there’s been some off court competition during the last few years which always helps to motivate us all!
“One of the aims of the tournament is to build on grass root tennis and encourage more young boys and girls to get involved and try out the game.”
“The partnership work undertaken across the region has been magnificent and we are keeping our fingers crossed this will be a contributory factor for us to win back the world record. Judy Murray and her team have done extremely well in promoting tennis to children across Britain – however, we want our record back!”
Since January this year there has been a 300 per cent increase of the number of children playing tennis at the Liverpool Tennis Centre through an initiative set-up by Liverpool City Council.
Dave Hillier, tennis manager, at Liverpool Tennis Centre, added:
“We have seen a huge increase in attendance on our weekly courses at Liverpool Tennis Centre since the start of the year. We run weekly mini tennis, junior squads and adult coaching course for players of all standards and ages throughout the year on our six indoor courts. This increase is down to several factors including having a new coaching team, increased links with local schools.”
The record attempt will take place at Liverpool Cricket Club the day before this year’s Liverpool Hope University International Tennis Tournament.
This is the same ground where legend trickster Mansour Bahrami, British nr. 2 Aljaz Bedene, Junior world nr. 1 Andrey Rublev and a host of other tennis stars will compete this week.
Tickets and hospitality packages are still available for the Liverpool Hope University International Tennis Tournament, which runs from Thursday, June 18th to Sunday, June 21st .
