Melbourne, 18 July 2012 | tennis.com.au

The annual Australian Tennis Conference begins tonight in Melbourne with Minister for Sport, Senator Kate Lundy to address the tennis community.

The conference will be attended by representatives from tennis’ state and national governing bodies and industry representatives charged with the mission of collaborating to develop the sport.

This year, the theme, developing communities through tennis, looks at how the sport of tennis can contribute to building better communities through its strategic priorities.

High on the agenda include the MLC Tennis Hot Shots and Cardio Tennis programs, together with the Places to Play, Coaching and Competitions.

“The conference is important to achieving our objective of four million participants by 2016,” explained Robin O’Neil, Tennis Australia’s Places to Play and Community Leader.

“Currently, tennis has 2.5 million participants with 1.4 million people highly interested in immediately returning to the game and a further 44  per cent of the population that have played tennis in their lifetime.

“Achieving four million participants would position tennis as the biggest participation sport in Australia. It will also grow attendance and broadcast viewing of major events.”