The famous All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, which is responsible for staging Wimbledon, is set to provide the stage for an Olympic event for the second time at London, having hosted tennis staged the Games in 1908.

Draper, though, who has headed up the LTA since 2006 following his role as chief executive of Sport England, claimed hosting Olympic tennis at Wimbledon in 2012 will mean that the sport will be far different from anything witnessed at previous Games due to the fact that Wimbledon is already the world’s premier tennis venue.

Speaking at the Sports Industry Breakfast Club meeting here this morning, Draper said: "It will not be a typical Olympics for tennis at London 2012 because Wimbledon is already a fully established venue for the sport.

"Usually when a country hosts the Games, they put a lot of money into building tennis courts and a tennis city that is fit to host the sport but obviously we don’t need to do that with Wimbledon as we already have arguably the greatest tennis venue on the planet.

"It will also be unique as just a few weeks before the Olympics; we will be hosting the 2012 edition of the Championships.

"That brings its own logistical problems and as well as meaning that we must carefully organise things like the security and management of the two events well in advance, it also means a big job for our groundsman Eddie.

"But in all seriousness, we are very excited that Wimbledon is hosting the Olympics.

"It is our aim to create a ‘People’s Sunday’ type atmosphere at Wimbledon during everyday of the London 2012 tennis competition.

"We are also delighted that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has decided to bring back mixed doubles for the 2012 event as it means more tennis for all the spectators."

Despite Wimbledon requiring no new investment for the Games, Draper stated that tennis will still see a legacy from hosting the Games.

He said: "Wimbledon is always looking to expand regardless of the hosting the Games and that is demonstrated by the construction of the fantastic new roof on Centre Court that came into operation during last year’s Championships.

"We are also in the process of building a new court three as well as making other expansions but that does not mean that there will be no real legacy from the 2012 tennis event.

"We are looking to build new tennis indoor centres across Britain in 2012 as it is important to remember that the Games will create a tennis legacy for the whole country and not just London.

"We also expect that part of the thing that will inspire kids to take up the sport by watching London 2012 is seeing the British players doing well and we certainly have medal shots in 2012.



"Andy Murray will be reaching his peak by then and Laura Robson (pictured) will be getting there as a player by then."

Draper also is excited by the prospect of tennis during the Paralympics at a purpose-built facility at Eton Manor.

He said: "We also have the likes of quad wheelchair world number one Peter Norfolk looking to defend his Paralympic crown and we have Lucy Shuker in the women’s wheelchair event as well so we have a shot of doing really well at the Games."

Draper also explained that he hopes to get more people involved in tennis following the 2012 Games while defending the lack of elite players in British tennis.

He said: "It is obvious that the more elite British players you have, the more children will be inspired to take up the sport.

"Right now, we only have Andy who is a top five and Laura who looks like she will become a top ten player but people must understand that things take time.

"There is perhaps not a great deal you can do with the current generation and that is why we are looking more to the future and promising young juniors.

"We are being more ruthless with our funding and investing a lot of our income on juniors but it will take them time to come through.

“We should really be judged from 2016-2020 because that is when we predict to see a sustained period of growth in British tennis and a few Brits challenging for world honours so we are in the process of building a system that is ready to handle that explosion of talent when it happens.

"And if Andy Murray wins Wimbledon in the next few years, that boom could well happen even sooner."

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