TENNIS NEWS FROM THE U.K. – ANNE KEOTHAVONG NAMED SENIOR NATIONAL WOMEN’S COACH

Written by: Staff on 30th November 2016

TENNIS NEWS FROM THE U.K. - ANNE KEOTHAVONG NAMED SENIOR NATIONAL WOMEN'S COACH |

photo credit: LTA

Judy Murray Left Big Shoes For Anne To Fill

The Lawn Tennis Association has today announced the appointment of Anne Keothavong to the role of Senior National Women’s Coach.

The position will involve working with Head Coach Women’s Tennis Jeremy Bates in overseeing the development and delivery of individual support programmes for aspiring professional players, as well as preparation and management of the Aegon GB Fed Cup team in the role of Captain.

Keothavong will start December 1 and will travel out to the Australian Open in preparation for the Fed Cup Euro/Africa Zone Group 1 (February 7-12) in Tallinn, Estonia.

Jeremy Bates, LTA Head Women’s Coach said, “We have found the best candidate in Anne. She has a tremendous work ethic having gone through triumph and adversity in her own career, and has a burning desire to give back to British Tennis. What she brings to the role is first-hand knowledge of the 16-20 development ages, having successfully negotiated this hurdle herself and has extensive WTA and ITF experience to draw from. She also has numerous Fed Cup matches under her belt, so she fully understands the pressures and challenges that come along with that. As a coach, Anne is a really good communicator, has a motivational delivery, sets standards and knows what it takes to achieve them and succeed.”

Keothavong stated: “I’m delighted and honoured to accept this position in the sport that I love. What a privilege it’s been to see all the British success on the court over the last couple of years, especially this last 12 months. But success doesn’t just happen, it takes hard work, dedication, commitment and a desire to continually do better. I really look forward to working with everyone in British Tennis: the performance and coaching teams at the LTA and of course the players as we aim to raise the bar even higher. As a young girl growing up in Hackney, I never in my wildest dreams thought tennis would have given me the opportunities it has. That’s why it’s important to always dream big. This is a unique time in our sport, and through our athletes and the Fed Cup, we have the ability to inspire more coming along, both professionally and recreationally, into this great game of ours.”

Simon Timson, LTA Performance Director said, “We are very pleased with Anne’s appointment. She is very well respected within British Tennis and relatively fresh off the Tour. Her wealth of experience will enable Anne to collaborate with our highest potential young players, their coaches and support staff to help them fulfil their potential. We feel confident that Anne will create a positive culture within the Aegon GB Fed Cup Team and empower the players to succeed.”

Current British No.1 and Britain’s first WTA Top 10 year-end finisher since 1983, Jo Konta commented: “I think Anne is a great choice as our next [Aegon] GB Fed Cup captain. She will lead from real life experience because she was a winner on court and she knew what it took to step up and play for her country. I wish her the best and look forward to the 2017 campaign.”

As a professional player Anne won 20 singles titles from 2001-2013 across all levels on the ITF Women’s Pro Circuit. On the WTA, Keothavong was a runner-up in doubles at Florianopolis and a seven-time singles semifinalist, including the WTA Premier stop at 2009 Warsaw. That same year in February, she became the first woman since Jo Durie 16 years earlier, to break into the world’s Top 50.

Keothavong had an illustrious and long-standing Fed Cup playing career. She first represented her country in 2001, playing in all years of the tournament, apart from 2002, during her 13 year pro career. Aged 17 years, 221 days, Keothavong was the youngest Briton to represent her country in Fed Cup, in a 52-year span until Katie Swan (270 days younger) broke that record in 2016. Only Virginia Wade has donned the Union Jack more in the competition than Keothavong’s 40 ties. She played 44 singles and doubles Fed Cup rubbers in that time. Her record of 21 singles wins in the competition is only bettered by Wade (with 36).

NOTES & ODD Bits Of Info:

ABOUT THE LTA:

The Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) is the National Governing Body for tennis in Great Britain, responsible for developing and promoting the sport, with a mission to get more people playing tennis more often. It does this under the consumer brand of British Tennis, by working with a broad range of partners and over 25,000 volunteers, to grow the game in communities, clubs and schools. The LTA represents the interests of over 350,000 British Tennis Members, men and women, girls and boys across the country, playing on more than 23,000 courts. The LTA runs and supports a network of 11,500 approved tournaments for players of all ages, the corner-stones of which are the premier grass court events leading up to Wimbledon, held in Nottingham , Birmingham , Queen’s Club-London and Eastbourne, all title sponsored by Aegon. The LTA works in partnership with its charitable entity, the Tennis Foundation, to provide a tennis provision for more than 20,000 schools, disadvantaged youth as well as promoting tennis as an inclusive sport for anyone with a disability. For further information about the LTA and British Tennis, and to review the British Tennis strategy for 2015 – 2018 visit www.lta.org.uk or follow us on Twitter @BritishTennis.

ABOUT GB’S FED CUP HISTORY:

In 2017, Great Britain will compete in the Euro/Africa Zone Group I for the 13th consecutive year. The event will be staged from Feb 7-12 and held at the Tallink Tennis Centre in Tallinn, Estonia on indoor hard for the first time. Great Britain have most recently twice in that period qualified out of the Fed Cup Euro-Africa Zone Group (a round-robin competition of 14-16 nations), narrowly falling to Sweden in 2013 and Argentina in 2014 in World Group II Play-Offs.

In 2016, Great Britain defeated South Africa and Georgia, before narrowly falling to Belgium in the promotion play off, where four nations advance to the April World Goup II Play-Offs on a home and away basis. The last time Great Britain was in the World Group proper was 1993. The best GB has done in the competition was runner-up on four occasions: 1967, 1970, 1972 and 1981.

Topics: Anne Keothavong, British Tennis, Fed Cup, Great Britain, Judy Murray, Lta, Tennis News, Wta