Tennis Australia says proposed Mouratoglou Academy will help create more top players

Tennis Australia has had their say on the new 48-court tennis academy that is coming to Victoria, which has been launched by Serena Williams’ former coach.

Tennis Australia Chief Tennis Officer Tom Larner believes Modewarre’s proposed Mouratoglou Academy will help create more Australian tennis stars in the future and address the growing demand for the sport.

Experienced French coach Patrick Mouratoglou, who coached American legend Serena Williams along with many other recognised players, announced last week that he will be launching his latest global tennis academy as part of the $500 million Cape Otway Road Project.

The Mouratoglou Academy will feature 48 tennis courts, swimming facilities and a gym, with the facility set to host 200 places for world class tennis students from 2027.

Larner was excited by Mouratoglou’s decision to bring his academy empire – which includes facilities in France, USA, Greece, Beijing and Dubai – to Australia.

He is confident the private entity will complement the Australian elite pathway, which has national academies in each state as well as national development squads, rather than hinder it.

Larner also said the facility will promote the development and growth of budding tennis players in the Geelong and Bellarine Peninsula regions.

What the Mouratoglou Academy is set to look like.

“It is fantastic for tennis obviously. We have huge demand and don’t have enough courts and opportunities for people to play so to have a brand new facility like this in this area is all about giving people more opportunity to play, which is great for the sport,” Larner said.

“We have a number of academies across the country, both through Tennis Australia but also private academies and obviously an international academy coming in will attract, not just locals, but internationals as well and I think it is good for the sport to have a focus on creating professionals.

“We can see this week with the Australian Open and with the lead-in in events there is a great depth of talent and having this academy here will go a long in way in creating more champions locally which is very exciting.

“(It) will no doubt improve the quality of the kids coming through the region and obviously internationally as well in growing the region and growing tennis in the region. We expect to see performance improve absolutely.

“It helps grow and professionalise the sport and creates more opportunities for our local athletes and particularly the kids from around Geelong and the Bellarine Peninsula to have these qualified coaches at that level in the country here to help them develop their game.

“So we don’t really see any negatives, we see it adding to our sport in a number of ways through our facilities, opportunities but also having qualified and quality coaches and new roles to service the academy.”

Tennis Australia’s Tom Larner believes the academy will help grow the sport. Picture: NCA Newswire/Gaye Gerard

Mouratoglou is eager to push more Australian tennis stars into the upper echelon alongside the likes of Alexei Popyrin, a Mouratoglou Academy graduate.

He said that Tennis Australia can’t satisfy the demands of all the players who aspire to be professionals and that his academy can bridge the gap.

“I think the (Tennis Australia) is doing a great job because Australia has always been a big country for tennis and at the moment there are plenty of good Australian players,” Mouratoglou said.

“But if there are two big entities, Tennis Australia can’t take care of all the players, and we want to give a chance. I think together with Tennis Australia we will give a chance to most of the kids who want to have the chance to potentially become professionals.

“I think it is important to bring the players together so they can play against each other, they can push each other. I think the whole project is beautiful and we can build something for the children for the future.”

Larner believes it is important to have an elite facility like the Mouratoglou Academy in a regional centre.

“We have our facilities at Melbourne Park here which are globally leading, but to spread that around, I think it is really important,” Larner said.

“We have had a 35 per cent increase of people participating in tennis since pre-Covid, that puts pressure on accessibility. That’s a challenge we have nationally, it’s a good challenge to have.

“Any new facility we have got is great so it is a real positive that these extra courts are being built.”

Originally published as Tennis Australia says proposed Mouratoglou Academy will help create more top players