From the 1 April 2020, a new competition age group system for players 18 and under will be implemented based on their year of birth, making it much simpler and easier to use and understand. 

The move will provide more flexibility than the current system, with players able to ‘play up’ earlier between red, orange and green ball tennis. An 11U age group is being introduced to aid the transition from Green Ball to Yellow Ball tennis and mitigate any relative age effect. It will also bring national domestic competitions in line with the system used at an international level and with the LTA’s Player Pathway, as well as matching the system already used for in seniors’ tennis to deliver a standardised approach across all age groups.

The change is one of a number of priority improvements to competitions being implemented by the LTA during 2019 and 2020 as part of our desire to make competitions more relevant, accessible, welcoming and enjoyable for all players. It follows an extensive review of the competitive landscape and review of our systems which highlighted that players, parents, coaches and officials want an age group system that is straightforward, easy to explain and simple to calculate, and this change delivers that.

The table below shows which age group players will compete in from April 1 to 31 December 2020: