The National Tennis Centre in Britain will no longer be used as a training facility, reports the British press.
The center, which was built by Britain's Lawn Tennis Association seven years ago, cost 40 million pounds and has 22 courts, as well as high-performance fitness facilities. The LTA's previous chief executive, Roger Draper, had established the center as the organization's center of operations with the goal of producing more top players. However, it was criticized for not pushing players hard enough and restricting resources to a select few.
The LTA's new CEO, Michael Downey, is expected to concentrate more on the country's four regional centers, also reducing some of the 19 high-performance facilities located around Britain. As the former chief of Tennis Canada, he was known for establishing a national training facility in Montreal, with two other national centers also used for player development.
Though the tennis facilities will not be regularly used by the organization, LTA offices will stay at the National Training Centre.