Tennis and swimming among sports to have funding cut

Tennis is one of six sports to have funding cut for their governing bodies because of falling participation levels.

Sport England has also reduced budgets for swimming, basketball, table tennis, squash and fencing.
However, extra funding will be provided directly to programmes at grassroots level.
"There are tough messages here for national governing bodies," said Sport England chief executive Jennie Price.
"If they don't grow participation we will reduce their funding, and we won't make long-term investments until we have confidence in their ability to deliver."

The last tennis participation survey confirmed the number of 16-25-years-olds playing the sport had fallen, so Sport England has reduced funding for Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) programmes with this age group by 20% over the next year.

Instead, it intends to invest directly into a pilot project to boost park court usage, and has followed a similar route with the other sports affected by the cuts.
LTA chief operating officer Nick Humby said: "We know that we have more to do and that change takes time, but we have started to transform our approach to participation by building effective partnerships and we are determined to change the long-term trend."
Table tennis, which was among four sports to have their elite-level funding withdrawn by UK Sport  ahead of the 2016 Rio Olympics, will benefit from greater grassroots investment from Sport England.
Sara Sutcliffe, chief executive of the English Table Tennis Association, said: "The past six months have been a major - and necessary - journey for the sport of table tennis.