LAWN TENNIS ASSOCIATION (LTA) has announced a partnership with Brown Girl Sport, a media platform dedicated to amplifying South Asian women’s and girls’ stories in sport, with the aim of increasing representation and visibility.
Founded in January 2023 by Sky Sports reporter Miriam Walker-Khan, Brown Girl Sport began as an online platform and community representing South Asian women and girls in sport. Its mission is to challenge stereotypes suggesting that Brown women do not participate in, care about, or understand sport, by using storytelling to give them a voice.
While the platform has a strong focus on football, it also covers a wide range of sports including cricket, athletics, boxing, archery, weightlifting, hockey, and Formula 1. The new collaboration with the LTA aims to create both a physical and online community for tennis fans.
Miriam said, “We’re so excited about launching a tennis community. We already know there are lots of people who follow Brown Girl Sport who are huge fans of the sport and we can’t wait to connect them and do what we’ve done in football, which is to create a physical community as well as an online one. Storytelling is a huge part of that, but so is organising and allyship. We want people to be able to connect with new people over their love of tennis – because what is better than finding new sport friends who also understand what it’s like to be from a similar community or religion and can be there by your side every step of the way to make things feel a little less daunting.”
Miriam added, “Stories of South Asians in tennis can come in all forms, but firstly, we want to highlight all the incredible Brown women and girls who play the sport or have been inspired by previous players with South Asian heritage. Equally, we want to inspire more people to pick up a racket for the first time and tell the stories of fans to explore what it’s really like for South Asians to watch, play, and experience tennis. We are hoping to use our network and the LTA’s network to find the stories that are out there with schools, youth groups, charities, and other groups. We want to connect with people who can tell their own stories, especially on social media.”
