Tennis bubble work starts at Welwyn Garden City sports centre

A FUTURISTIC project to turn a WGC leisure centre into the biggest indoor tennis facility in the country has begun. An air bubble is being constructed at Gosling Sports Park to protect four outdoor courts from the weather, enabling them to be used all y

A FUTURISTIC project to turn a WGC leisure centre into the biggest indoor tennis facility in the country has begun.

An 'air bubble' is being constructed at Gosling Sports Park to protect four outdoor courts from the weather, enabling them to be used all year round.

It will bring the number of indoor courts at the complex to 17 - more than anywhere else in the UK.

The state-of-the-art scheme was revealed in the WHT in October.

Sport England gave �400,000 funding as part of a scheme that awards cash to projects which boosts facilities available to local people of all sporting abilities.

The Hertfordshire Lawn Tennis Association provided a further �100,000.

Tennis director Matt Willcocks said: "We thank Sport England and Herts LTA for enabling the project to happen.

"We expect work to be finished at the beginning of April and are excited about the opportunity this provides the park to offer more people of every age, ability and aspiration the chance to play tennis and succeed."

Mr Willcocks added he hoped to build on a reputation that has seen Gosling become a hotbed of young tennis talent in the past few months.

For two Brits who feature in the world junior top 100, and five of the top 10 Brits on the world under-18 rankings, all train there.

Gosling is accredited by the LTA as a gold status high performance tennis centre.