2024 WTA AND MORGAN STANLEY COME PLAY EVENT CREATING OPPORTUNITIES

News and Stories by Nino Severino

What an amazing 2024 London leg of the global WTA, Morgan Stanley, Come Play event again held at the home of British Tennis, the LTA National Tennis Centre.

Now in August, we are really beginning to experience the effects of this great event, and all it provides the girls, and all involved from The Elena Baltacha Foundation.

We are so grateful to the LTA, for letting us use this outstanding venue to host this amazing event, and how can we thank our World governing body the WTA, and Morgan Stanley, for the incredible support they offer The Elena Baltacha Foundation.

I was again privileged to be asked to join the WTA senior management team, to organise this incredible opportunity for all our foundation girls. I’m so proud to say that we had an amazing group of girls attending, from our vast network across London and Ipswich, over 60 girls, all from schools situated in challenging areas.

Attending from London where Charlton Manor, Turnham Academy and Poverest Primary Schools, and from Ipswich, The Oaks Primary School. A big thank you to Access Sport, who supports our relationship building process and introductions to our London schools.

This year was extra special as some of our trustees and ambassadors attended, the Patrons were:

·         Penny Moor

·         Kari Chaudhry

·         Praf Vagh

·         Steven Brown

Penny Moor, one of the founding members of the WTA, who was a member of the original group of players led by Billie Jean King. This group of female tennis players fought like lionesses to earn equal rights. Many of the benefits that the modern-day WTA players enjoy, and experience is because of this group of ladies who represented the females competing on the tennis World tour back in 1973. Billie Jean King founded the Women's Tennis Association, uniting all of women's professional tennis in one tour. The WTA was born out of a meeting of more than 60 players held in a room at the Gloucester Hotel in London the week before Wimbledon.

 I was introduced to Penny at the WTA World Global Media event, held in the same hotel as the event back in 1973, we had a very long chat, it was clear that her passions and charitable objectives, aligned perfectly with The Elena Baltacha Foundation. Because of this connection, Penny was invited to join our board of trustees, I’m very pleased she accepted, she is now a very important member of our team, who is committed to attending school sessions and delivering our tennis road shows whenever she can.

And the ambassadors were:

·         Martyn Waghorn

·         Leoni Waghorn

·         Kelly Sheppard

·         Corina Goetz

·         Lilly Tang

·         Anna Edwards

Our ambassadors are an exceptional group of individuals who have the life stories and professional careers and businesses who can inspire and motivate our young Athlete Students who are members of our Sport Skills 4 Business (SS4B), personal development programme. All of them have been very successful in their fields, experiencing the pathway that most sports people or businesspeople will travel, and taking on all the challenges which will be part of that journey. Their stories are incredible, and its these life experiences which can make an incredible difference to our young Athlete Students in a phase of their lives where personalities such as our ambassadors, and the conversations they can all have together, can make an incredible difference to the mindset of these young students.

Both Mel Kang CEO and Raj Sumal COO of Mezzle both attended the Come Play event, as two members of the business community who are very interested in supporting sport at grass roots level, they were very impressed with the whole schedule of sporting opportunities for all the girls that attended. Little did I know that our relationship would grow to a point where their company Mezzle would become official sponsors of The Elena Baltacha Foundation. Their current support in the sporting community lends itself perfectly with our foundation vision, a collaboration evolved very easily, and we look forward to all that will be achieved with Mel, Raj and Mezzle, and look forward to them attending the 2025 Come Play event.

The event was made extra special because two of our British female tennis stars attended, Jo Konta and Heather Watson, who, as always were amazing with all the foundation girls.

The way both are so attentive to all the girls, ensuring that all of them had a chance to speak to them both, and of course hit a few balls on the state-of-the-art courts at The National Tennis Centre, such a special experience for all the girls, and of course the teachers who accompanied them!

As always, Judy Murray led the session, with the fantastic support of the Morgan Stanley volunteers who were all outstanding. Judy delivered, the many games that she played with Andy and Jamie Murray as they were young children growing and developing, I think it’s safe to say, it worked, with both of her son’s achieving World No.1 and earning the status of Grand Slam Champions. ily:"Calibri",sans-serif"

It was obvious that the Morgan Stanley volunteers were all tennis lovers, with all of them being accomplished tennis players, and earning their place above the hundreds of Morgan Stanley staff members who applied for the opportunity. All the volunteers attended the whole day, the session with all the coaches and teachers prior to the main event with the foundation girls, the Come Play session itself, and the clinic post event that Judy delivered as well.

The icing on the cake was the attendance of 2 of our girls who have come through The Elena Baltacha Foundation ranks themselves, Macy Hendin-Walker and Alana Bristow. Macy and Alana were discovered in their primary schools when they were just 6 years old. Macy is now in her third year at her USA College, enjoying full time tennis and education combined, with Alana who has reached national standard as a player, leaving for the states next year.

It was such a joy for me to see them both ‘giving back’, both having such a fun experience with all these new girls now coming through the ranks and Elena Baltacha Foundation pathway. This is exactly what Elena wanted, a culture of learning, experiencing, progressing, and coming back home to help the next generation of girls. Both of these foundation girls deliver a model for these young girls coming through the ranks, both have achieved so much, and are a great inspiration, showing what can be achieved and experienced through the game of tennis.

As always it was wonderful to spend time with Judy Murray, who has given a wonderful 12 years of devotion to Elena’s foundation. Offering so much of her time, attention, compassion and care to our girls, and honouring Elena in such a special way.

Judy’s attendance means so much to me, as Elena and Judy had a very special relationship. Judy tells great stories of watching Elena when she was a up and coming 10-year-old junior player! Their life path would ensure they would keep in contact, this led to Judy becoming a very influential and inspirational person in Elena’s life. Judy Murray became the Captain of the Great Britain Women’s Tennis Team, and Elena was a devoted member of her team. Their relationship flourished, with Judy attending our wedding back in December 2013.

It was coincidental, that a very special tennis player was also at the venue, a certain player called Andy Murray, practicing on the courts next to the girls, what a very special experience. One of our parents managed to get some time with Andy, taking a selfie and having a nice little chat with him. Andy is always so great with his fans and ensured that this parent did not go home disappointed.

There was also another great surprise for me, Andy Murray’s strength and conditioning coach of many years, Matt Little was also at The National Tennis centre, supporting Andy Murray. Matt and I go a long way back, before he was Andy Murray’s S & C Coach, when he had the role of Head of S & C for British Tennis. We have built a very good relationship over the years; I will never forget the compassion and care Matt showed me after I lost Elena to Cancer.

Now we look forward to the Come Play 2025 event and focus on making sure that the support the WTA and Morgan Stanley have offered us, ensures that many more thousands of primary school students will have the experience of being introduced to tennis. We hope that they will fall in love with our wonderful game of tennis, and who knows, some may make it to the USA and enjoy an exciting international life of tennis and education!