Tennis NSW statement to temporarily cease all tennis activity across NSW

27 March 2020

To the Tennis NSW family

Tennis NSW strongly recommends that all tennis activities cease from midnight Friday 27 March 2020 across the state of NSW.

With the continued escalation of the COVID-19 crisis and in consultation with the tennis community and the NSW Government, the Board of Tennis NSW resolved today to recommend that all tennis activity cease from midnight Friday 27^th March 2020. The recommendation is that:

• All tennis clubs, venues, academies and centres cease operations until further notice
• All tennis programmes and coaching be cancelled, including one-on-one coaching, until further notice
• All club, association and social play be cancelled until further notice
• All public court hire bookings cease until further notice

President of Tennis NSW, Kim Warwick said “The Board of Tennis NSW met this morning to consider the continued escalation of the COVID-19 crisis across Australia but most significantly across NSW. Our capital city, Sydney, is now at the epicentre of this pandemic in Australia and the Board feels that it is essential to put the wider community first and foremost in our decision making. The Premier has advised us today not to go outside unless we absolutely have to, that was at the forefront of our decision.

This was not an easy decision to make. We understand and feel the pain of our tennis operators and coaching community, a number of whom sit on our Board, however, we feel that it is a time to put lives before livelihoods. As a sport, we could not continue to guarantee the safety of all participants nor of our coaches or volunteers. Therefore, for the time being, we strongly recommend that all tennis activity cease in NSW.”

Tennis NSW staff are working remotely to limit contact but are all still available to support you through this challenge.

Please note:

• Support, advice, information and resources to support our clubs and coaches are available through our Club Development Officers and on the Tennis NSW website
• For our coaching operators, the following advice is available on the Tennis Australia website in relation to the relevant Government grants that your business may be able to access to assist you through these challenging times: https://www.tennis.com.au/play/covid-19/coaches/finance-and-insurance-faqs
• The NSW Treasury have today announced the second stage of its economic package aimed at keeping people in jobs and helping businesses. More details can be found here: https://www.tennis.com.au/nsw/files/2020/03/Treasurer-Media-Release.pdf 

The Board intends to review this position formally on the 27^th of April yet will continue to meet regularly to explore all appropriate options for resuming tennis when Government and/or health authorities deem it safe to do so. This pandemic and these exceptional circumstances will pass and we want to work with our partners to ensure tennis is back bigger and better than ever.

This is a challenging time for everyone, please stay home and stay safe.

Kind regards

Kim Warwick                                                         Lawrence Robertson
President, Tennis NSW                                         CEO, Tennis NSW