A group of tennis-based charities will share grant funding of more than £100,000 from the Tennis Foundation to help them sustain their activities throughout the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Foundation is an official grant-giving partner of the LTA, the sport’s governing body in the UK, and the new funding is aimed at supporting 13 charities which cover a wide range of activities across the country, including work with disadvantaged communities, ethnically diverse communities and disabled people.

Tim Lawler, Chair of the Tennis Foundation, said: “We are really pleased to be able to add our support to the LTA’s efforts to help those involved in our sport who have been severely impacted by the coronavirus pandemic by making these charitable funds held by the Tennis Foundation available to such a range of wonderful charities at this time of need.

“It is hard to underestimate the individual and collective contribution they make to the lives of people across the country, and to our sport more broadly. Our evolving strategy for the Tennis Foundation is very much focused on supporting activity for disadvantaged communities, ethnically diverse communities and disabled people, groups that are very much at the heart of what these charities do.

“We therefore want to do all we can to ensure they emerge from this period able to continue to do their valuable work, and are in a position to play their part in contributing to the vision we and the LTA have for tennis in Britain to grow the sport in the coming years.”

Judy Murray, a trustee of beneficiary the Judy Murray Foundation and mother of two-time Wimbledon champion Andy, said: “This is a fantastic initiative from the Tennis Foundation at a time of real need for charities, and we are hugely grateful to both them and the LTA for their support of it.

“Tennis charities deliver some wonderful work all across Britain. Alongside everything the Judy Murray Foundation does, I have been lucky enough to witness the tremendous efforts of many of the other charities that will benefit from this funding, and so I know it will go a long way to ensuring we can collectively continue to open up our sport and its benefits to new people who may not otherwise have had access to it.”

Charities benefitting include All Star Youth Tennis Scholarship Trust, which is based in Wandsworth and provides opportunities and support to local children, who do not have the financial means to participate in tennis. The grant will be used to start a new breakfast club with a local school.

A grant for the IC Philanthropy Foundation will be used for one of the largest projects in Birmingham. It provides equipment and supports coaching to children from disadvantaged backgrounds, and disabled young people.

The Queen’s Club Foundation will work with local organisations in Hammersmith and Fulham to support a new housing estates tennis project, and Rackets Cubed will provide a combined tennis, education and nutrition programme to young people aged seven to 11 who have been identified as vulnerable and selected by partner schools. Tennis First will use the funding as top-up support for grantees from financially disadvantaged families.