In a bid to increase the number of people playing tennis in Britain, the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) is launching the Play Tennis 2002 initiative.

The campaign, which is running between April and July, is designed to provide clubs throughout the country with promotional help and information to enable them to increase membership and activity.

Local clubs will be encouraged to run at least one day of free tennis within the three-month campaign period, with the aim of increasing awareness of tennis and attracting more newcomers to the game. The LTA will assist local clubs by running its own national advertising campaign and providing Play Tennis promotional packs.

In 2001, the initiative attracted more than 60,000 people to around 800 clubs and the LTA's director of marketing, Steve Curzon hopes to surpass these numbers this year: 'This campaign demonstrates our commitment to support the clubs and coaches in the frontline of British tennis, we want to add to the three million that play and see more people do more than just watch tennis,' he said.

The LTA has appointed lifestyle agency Exposure to work on the campaign, and help with advertising and media relations.