Davis Cup duo, Nick Kyrgios and Jordan Thompson have hand delivered free tennis racquets to 100 kindergarten students at Gold Creek School as part of the ANZ Tennis Hot Shots racquet roadshow.
Now in its third year, the ANZ Tennis Hot Shots Racquet Roadshow encourages school aged children nationwide to pick up a racquet and play tennis. The visit takes the total number of racquets handed out in ACT schools to 708 across 11 schools this year.
After handing out the racquets, Kyrgios and Thompson hit the courts with the kids to test out their new equipment.
For Kyrgios, it was nice to be back at the grassroots level in his home town, hoping to inspire the next generation of tennis players.
“It’s awesome, I’ve done a bunch of this stuff in Canberra. Participation is the main thing, there’s a lot of kids out there have got a lot of racquets now. The more people playing, that’s what it’s about.”
Thompson said the visit highlighted the importance of the grassroots program.
“It makes tennis alive, trying to get participation at a young age, I think it’s very important. When I was a kid, I grew up hitting a balloon against a wall, I just wanted to play tennis, anything that was close to tennis.
“Hot Shots is a whole new program that shows kids that you can play tennis from a young age and hopefully we can get them participating early.”
What a morning for @GoldCreekSchool kindergarten students, with Jordan Thompson and @NickKyrgios handing out 100 free tennis racquets as part of the ANZ Tennis Hot Shots Racquet Roadshow. #racquetroadshow @jordanthommmo2 @ANZ_AU #TennisHotShots pic.twitter.com/idYaZKp2pa
— Tennis ACT (@TennisCanberra) October 31, 2019
ANZ Tennis Hot Shots Racquet Roadshow fast facts
- The ANZ Tennis Hot Shots Racquet Roadshow will visit all states and territories across Australia for the third consecutive year
- By the end of 2019, ANZ will have delivered a total of 140,000 racquets to primary school aged children since 2015
- Tennis Australia’s School Partnership Program aims to give children the opportunity to pick up a racquet and play tennis as part of their health and physical education curriculum
- ANZ Tennis Hot Shots is one of Australia’s most popular junior sports participation programs, with a record 702,509 participants in 2018/19 across coaching programs, community play and primary schools, up 29 per cent on 2017/18
- The program continues to be popular with both genders, 48 per cent girls and 52 per cent boys participated in coaching and community play programs.
- In 2018-19 tennis programs in primary schools reached a record 586,291 students across Australia
- Tennis continues to remain extremely popular in Sport Australia’s Sporting Schools initiative. In Term 4, 2018 and Term 1, 2019 it was the number one delivered sport by primary and secondary schools in Australia
- There are currently more than 3188 schools across Australia participating in the School Partnership Program as part of their health and physical education curriculum.
For further information about ANZ Tennis Hot Shots please visit www.hotshots.tennis.com.au.
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