{"id":26806,"date":"2021-10-29T10:40:51","date_gmt":"2021-10-28T23:40:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/?p=26806"},"modified":"2021-10-29T10:40:51","modified_gmt":"2021-10-28T23:40:51","slug":"anz-tennis-hot-shots-racquet-roadshow-returns-to-victoria-for-whopping-200000-racquet-milestone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/news\/2021\/10\/29\/anz-tennis-hot-shots-racquet-roadshow-returns-to-victoria-for-whopping-200000-racquet-milestone","title":{"rendered":"ANZ Tennis Hot Shots Racquet Roadshow returns to Victoria for whopping 200,000 racquet milestone"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The ANZ Tennis Hot Shots Racquet Roadshow has returned to Victoria, celebrating a major milestone with the 200,000<sup>th<\/sup> racquet set to be gifted to one lucky first-year primary school student over the coming months.<\/p>\n<p>Thanks to ANZ, the successful initiative will see 30,000 new racquets delivered to students in more than 700 primary schools across the country. This builds on the 170,000 racquets distributed across the country over the past five years.<\/p>\n<p>As part of the initiative, Tennis Australia ambassadors Todd Woodbridge, John Fitzgerald and Casey Dellacqua will pop into schools virtually to inspire students to pick up their new racquets and swing into action. Some states will also enjoy live visits from local ambassadors.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The fifth edition of the ANZ Tennis Hot Shots Racquet Roadshow comes as new survey data shows that 92% of Australian parents surveyed believe children should learn tennis from a young age. The desire for children to partake in sport and physical activity is particularly relevant, as nearly half of parents surveyed say they are concerned their families are not as fit when compared to the start of the pandemic.<\/p>\n<p>From 2020 to 2021, tennis has seen a surge in popularity due to the sport\u2019s COVID-safe nature, with court bookings up by 209% year-on-year. As a socially distanced sport enjoyed outdoors, tennis has been tipped as one of the best ways to exercise safely.<\/p>\n<p>Two thirds of those surveyed said they would be more likely to try a new sport if they knew it was considered COVID-safe.<\/p>\n<p>The survey responses suggest that:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Almost half of Australian families surveyed noticed a decrease in their family\u2019s level of outdoor physical activity during the pandemic<\/li>\n<li>Nearly 40% of Victorians are somewhat concerned with a change of physical fitness in their children since the start of the pandemic<\/li>\n<li>Almost half of Victorians (49%) and NSW (46%) residents believe their family is not as fit when compared to the start of 2020<\/li>\n<li>Three quarters of Australians surveyed believe they would give tennis a shot if their families owned the necessary sporting equipment (specifically racquets and balls)<\/li>\n<li>82% of Australians surveyed are aware of the benefits associated with playing tennis as a child including physical fitness, coordination, confidence and social skills.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>It is hoped the program will also encourage Aussies to pick up tennis again, with three-quarters of those surveyed expressing an interest in either returning to the sport, or giving it a shot.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe ANZ Tennis Hot Shots Racquet Roadshow has been an outstanding success and is a credit to our team involved in the Tennis in Schools\u2019 program and our longstanding partnership with ANZ,\u201d Tennis Australia CEO Craig Tiley said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGetting more kids involved in tennis is part of what we do every single day, and to be able to put racquets in the hands of 200,000 kids across the country is a tremendous milestone to celebrate. I look forward to seeing more courts across the country full of kids playing tennis with their friends and families.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe hope that by supporting grassroots programs like the ANZ Tennis Hot Shots Racquet Roadshow we can help inspire the next generation grow a lifelong love of tennis,\u201d ANZ Managing Director of Retail Banking Katherine Bray said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cANZ and Tennis Australia\u2019s five-year partnership that has delivered 200,000 racquets to communities right across Australia is an outstanding achievement.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Twenty-two-time Grand Slam champion Todd Woodbridge has handed out thousands of racquets to school kids across the country over the past five years and has continued his classroom visits virtually over the past year.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe ANZ Tennis Hot Shots Racquet Roadshow is a project I\u2019m excited to be involved with every single year,\u201d Woodbridge said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo be able to introduce so many kids, and their families, to the sport I\u2019ve loved for my whole life is so rewarding. As is seeing the positive impact tennis can have on their lives.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For further information about ANZ Tennis Hot Shots please visit <a href=\"https:\/\/aus01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fplay.tennis.com.au%2Fhotshots&amp;data=04%7C01%7Cash.ryan%40Tennis.com.au%7Ce8b59ec7a0f94a215f1908d99a6a92fa%7C61aa9c8da7734a7c84701dd8062e404a%7C0%7C0%7C637710604785315542%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&amp;sdata=GIQMWGFKCtP73gZXK%2FmGYBp7CMNV6y6JXyjHHwPOg2c%3D&amp;reserved=0\">https:\/\/play.tennis.com.au\/hotshots<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The ANZ Tennis Hot Shots Racquet Roadshow has returned to Victoria, celebrating a major milestone with the 200,000th racquet set to be gifted to one lucky first-year primary school student over the coming months.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6297,"featured_media":26807,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26806","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26806","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6297"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26806"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26806\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}