\n Willcox, 45, who coaches at Aldershot Tennis Centre and Liphook Lawn Tennis Club won the deaf tennis event at the national finals at Play Your Way to Wimbledon, powered by Vodafone, which is Britain\u2019s largest individual mass participation tennis competition and is delivered in partnership with the LTA and the All England Club.\n<\/p>\n
\n Thousands of players took part in the qualifying stages this year, leading to county and regional finals in June and July, with the winners progressing to the national finals on Wimbledon\u2019s Aorangi Courts last week.\n<\/p>\n
\n One of Willcox\u2019s players came to Wimbledon to watch his coach in action, and Willcox revealed it was an unforgettable experience inspiring the next generation on such prestigious courts.\n<\/p>\n
\n He said: \u201cI hit with one of my junior players, Kieran, to warm up on the grass before my match.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cIt\u2019s brilliant because I started coaching Kieran years ago when he was 11 years old, so we\u2019ve gone through the whole journey together – and now he\u2019s better than I am!\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cWimbledon is such a traditional event – it\u2019s got to be every player\u2019s favourite tennis tournament in the world.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cI played here last year for the first time, which was nerve-wracking, but this year has been much better.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n The event, which took place between 2-8 August, offers recreational tennis players of all ages and abilities the opportunity to compete on Wimbledon\u2019s acclaimed grass courts, less than a month after The Championships. In addition, participants received a tour of the Grounds and enjoyed a taste of what it is like competing at Wimbledon, observing the all-white dress code and using the official player facilities.\n<\/p>\n
\n Last year saw over 11,000 players taking part in the competition, with more than 780 venues hosting the initial stages and 340 players reaching the national finals.\n<\/p>\n
\n This year\u2019s Play Your Way to Wimbledon, powered by Vodafone, and supported by the All England Club and the LTA, hosted 14U Junior Singles, 18U Junior Doubles, 19+ Adult Doubles, Wheelchair Adult and Junior, Learning Disability and Visually Impaired categories, plus Para Standing and Deaf competitions \u2013 newly formalised categories for 2026.\n<\/p>\n
\n A coaching clinic for 14&U players was also conducted by Head Coach of the All England Club, Dan Bloxham.\n<\/p>\n
\n Play Your Way to Wimbledon encourages tennis enthusiasts of all levels to pick up a racket and get involved in the sport. Participants begin by competing locally at their club, park or school before progressing to county and\/or area finals and eventually reaching the national finals at Wimbledon.\n<\/p>\n
\n Jamie Baker, Associate Director of Professional Tennis and Tournament Director of The Championships, Wimbledon said: “In partnership with Vodafone and the LTA, we are delighted to open up Play Your Way to Wimbledon to even more players with the addition of para-standing and deaf competitions.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cFor many of these players, competing on Wimbledon\u2019s grass courts will be their first experience on the surface. We hope this competition continues to inspire players of all ages, backgrounds and abilities to discover the fun and benefits of tennis.”\n<\/p>\n
\n Play Your Way to Wimbledon, powered by Vodafone, is the UK\u2019s largest individual mass participation tennis competition. It is part of Vodafone\u2019s ongoing commitment as Official Connectivity Partner to The Championships, to connect more people with the sports and events they love, while supporting grassroots tennis and making the sport more accessible to players of all ages and abilities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Willcox, 45, who coaches at Aldershot Tennis Centre and Liphook Lawn Tennis Club won the deaf tennis event…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":852511,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,85,747],"class_list":["post-852510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/852510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=852510"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/852510\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/852511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=852510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=852510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=852510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}