Matt Hammond to be Tennis Foundation Disability Performance Director
The Tennis Foundation, Great Britain’s leading tennis charity, has today announced the appointment of Matt Hammond as their new Disability Performance Director. Hammond will be responsible for further developing and delivering the Tennis Foundation’s disability performance strategy.
Hammond joins from his role as Performance Director at Boccia UK, having spent eight years leading their elite programme through both the London and Rio Paralympic Games.
Hammond brings with him extensive experience across performance sport for both disabled and non-disabled people as well as significant knowledge of sports science and player development, through previous roles at the English Institute of Sport and England Squash.
In his current role at Boccia UK Hammond has taken the sport to great success at Paralympic, World and European Championship level, with Great Britain topping the medal table at the recent European Championships.
Whilst Hammond’s role at the Tennis Foundation will be primarily about the development of wheelchair tennis given its status as a Paralympic sport, his responsibilities will also include supporting other categories of disability tennis performance, specifically deaf tennis and learning disability tennis.
Hammond said:
“I am thrilled to be taking up the position of Performance Director with the Tennis Foundation and working with the players, coaches and support staff that have had such great success in recent times.
“I have been involved closely with the sport over the last few years both personally and professionally, and look forward to bringing this experience and performance knowledge and expertise to the programme.”
Hammond joins a Tennis Foundation disability performance programme that has delivered significant success in recent years, with Great Britain winning more wheelchair tennis medals at Rio 2016 than any other nation.
That has been followed by a successful 2017 that could yet get even better, with five of Great Britain’s leading wheelchair tennis players in action at the NEC Masters in Loughborough from 29 November – 3 December. The ITF’s end-of-year championship will see Alfie Hewett, Gordon Reid, Lucy Shuker, Andy Lapthorne and Antony Cotterill take on the rest of the world’s best.
Commenting on Hammond’s appointment, Tennis Foundation Executive Director Geoff Newton said:
“We are delighted to confirm Matt’s appointment. To have attracted someone of his calibre demonstrates the high regard with which wheelchair tennis is now held in performance sport.
Thanks to the hard work put in by our team and our players over recent years Great Britain is now undoubtedly one of the leading nations in the world for disability tennis, with our elite success helping to inspire record numbers of disabled people to pick up a racket and play. We are now really excited to see the development of our world class performance programme continue under Matt’s leadership as we build towards Tokyo 2020.”
Hammond will take up his new role in the New Year, with him forming part of the Tennis Foundation’s senior management team helping to deliver its vision to make tennis a sport which is inclusive and accessible to all. The Tennis Foundation works to open up tennis to its priority audiences of disabled people and young people in education and in lower socio-economic communities – making it possible for them to enjoy the many health and social benefits of the sport whilst maximising their personal potential.
