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Mantis sign Courtois and launch dream partnership
Belgian WTA star Laurence Courtois has signed a 3 year Brand Ambassador agreeement with British tennis brand Mantis and with this have formed a partnership with Benelux based Tennisdream
Mantis signed as Aegon Masters partner
UK tennis brand named ball and racket partner for Masters event at London’s Royal Albert Hall
SGB Sports September available online
SGB Sports September now available online at www.sgb-sports.com/digital
Samurai takes coaching into 21st Century
Sportswear brand to handle new smartphone app designed to improve rugby coaching and analysis
Squash/Badminton: Wilson gets a feel for racket sports
Wilson’s 2011 racket range hinges on its BLX technology, which is described as ‘the most advanced composite in the industry’.
Luxilon part of history
Strings feature heavily during Wimbledon fortnight, including in rackets of women’s singles and men’s doubles winners
Head takes Murray viral
Racket sport brand launches online film to give fans chance to interact with British number one during Wimbledon tournament
Luxilon named ‘String Manufacturer of the Decade’
ERSA selects Belgian tennis string manufacturer as best over the last decade
Tennis: Kneissl takes swing at UK market
Austrian manufacturer Kneissl was big in the world of tennis in the 1980’s and 1990’s, and is now aiming to return to the top of the game in the 21st Century. Mark Limebear of Kneissl UK tells SGB Sports how it is planning to take on the UK market through independent specialists.
Kneissl returns to UK market
Austrian tennis equipment manufacturer returning to the UK market with new range of rackets; targeting specialist tennis retailers as route to market
Great expectations
As Andy Murray prepares for the 2010 Wimbledon Championships, adidas has launched a new range of grass court apparel and footwear for the Scot
Tennis
In an ideal world, I would be enthusing about the potential for the tennis sector thanks to Andy Murray winning Wimbledon, or at least reaching the final. It was one of the nearer near-misses, but it was not to be. Certainly everyone in the industry is absolutely clear how important a Murray win would be to the market: massive, fantastic, wonderful, the biggest thing for sport in this country since 1966 - bigger than the Rugby World Cup, bigger than the 2005 Ashes. Brands like Head (who sponsor Murray) and Slazenger (who are suppliers to the Championships) can foresee growth of their own ranges from a Murray win (when it comes) but also across the board, especially at entry level.
An annual awakening
There are three grades of amateur tennis player in the UK: the hard core league stalwarts who wrap themselves up in multiple layers to doggedly pound balls against a floodlit practice wall in mid-winter; then there are the less obsessed yet still committed players who start limbering up once British Summer Time has commenced in March; and finally there is the rest, the more casual majority who barely think twice about tennis until the last week of June, but once the television cameras turn to the short-cut grass, summer showers and a smiling Sue Barker in London SW19, there comes a veritable explosion of enthusiasm for tennis around the nation. It's like a hypnotic trigger. Tennis courts throughout the UK are filled, supermarkets sell-out of strawberries, and with a bit of luck, sports retailers really start to see tennis rackets selling through.
106 on the bounce
While tennis rackets at the Wimbledon Championships will come in all colours and technological variations, the balls at Wimbledon will be as consistent as they have been for the past 105 years, which is the length of time Slazenger has been the official supplier of tennis balls to the Championships. The All England Lawn Tennis Club claims it is the longest partnership in sporting goods history.
