The Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) has teamed up with The Beano comic to promote its Mini Tennis scheme to children over the summer.

The promotion began in the comic on 5 June with a competition for a family of four to win a trip to Wimbledon 2004.

Andy Roddick will then play against Dennis the Tennis Menace in the 26 June issue and go on to play Billy Whizz in The Beano Summer Special, which is on sale from 2 July.

The Mini Tennis programme has been designed for children between the ages of 4 and 10 years old.

Taking into account that the tennis racket and full-sized tennis court are too big and that balls bounce too high and fast for small children, Mini Tennis is instead organised around three, colour-coded stages of competency.

As children improve their game, they can graduate to the next level, which ensures that they are always playing at a level that feels comfortable for them to get maximum enjoyment out of the game.

The Mini Tennis website gets around 11,000 hits every month while the latest partnership with The Beano is expected to reach 600,000 7- to 11-year-olds.

As of 1 May this year, there were 697 accredited Mini Tennis clubs around the UK.

“Dennis the Menace” ‚„ D.C. Thomson & Co, Ltd, 2004