TENNIS: Tennis Ireland yesterday unveiled a strategic plan for tennis in this country that will be implemented and driven over the next two years. John Treacy, chief executive of the Irish Sports Council, launched the initiative at Fitzwilliam tennis club yesterday.

The strategic plan is the second document that the governing body for tennis in Ireland has produced and follows the one that covered the period 1999-2001.

According to Tennis Ireland the original plan "substantially achieved the stated objectives and remained current and relevant through 2002 and 2003".

The mission statement according to the latest document is "to promote tennis as a sport for life, with programmes dedicated to increased participation throughout Ireland, and to focus our resources to ensure progressive development at all levels of the game, recreational and elite".

While Tennis Ireland will devote time and money to promoting the game to recreational players, like any sporting organisation their emphasis is on working with elite young players so that one day Ireland may have a bona fide contender in the main draw of a Grand Slam tournament like Wimbledon or the French Open.

There are approximately 200 clubs affiliated to Tennis Ireland, with membership numbers about 60,000 and approximately the same number playing on private municipal and local authority courts. The governing body spends about €1 million in the promotion and development of the sport with 48 per cent of that finance coming in grants from the Irish Sports Council.

Construction on a dedicated National Training Centre in Albert College Park in Glasnevin is about to start and should be completed later this year at a cost of €1.4 million.

The site was provided by Dublin City Council while €800,000 came from funding from the Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism.

The Tennis Ireland strategic plan outlines the following as goals and strategies during the three-year period:

1. A review of the structures of the wider tennis community, together with issues relating to the governance and administrative procedures.

2. Communication, marketing and promotional opportunities.

3. Strategies dedicated to increased participation in tennis and the development of the recreational game.

4. The development of high performance players.

5. Facilities development.

The main thrust of the document is to put structures in place that will develop the sport at both elite and recreational levels.

Good progress was made in the Irish Junior Open Tennis championships at the Fitzwilliam club yesterday and there were no surprises with largely straight-sets wins for the national squad members being the order of the day.

The Greystones duo of Niall Fitzgerald and Mark Bowtell set the trend in the junior category with easy wins and another under-14 prospect to impress was Sam Barry.