Jack Pinnington Jones (who we know as PJ) arrived at Tennis Avenue aged 8, without having won an LTA Grade 4 tournament. Fast forward four years of training at Tennis Avenue and he reaches the FINAL of Longines Future Stars at Roland Garros 2015 (an invitational event for 16 of the best 13&U players from around the world, organised alongside the French Open).

If you look very carefully... you may recognise a few familiar faces, including this years' French Open Mens' Champion Carlos Alcaraz, Holger Rune and Arthur Cazaux.

PJ went on to be ranked No.1 in Europe at 14&U, and No.6 in the world Junior ITF (18&U). In June 2024 he defeated British No.1, and world No.39, Cameron Norrie 1-6 6-4 6-4 at the ATP Nottingham Open.

Court 3 at Tennis Avenue School is named after PJ!

For a period of four years between 2015-2019, a group of Tennis Avenue girls utterly dominated British Tennis - and were arguably the strongest group of girls anywhere in Europe. This group achieved unprecedented success:

• FOUR GB No.1 players
• an all-TA 10 & Under National Championships final
• an entire season of six Grade 2 National 12& Under tournaments, ALL of which were won by TA players
• one Grade 2 National 12 & Under event at Sutton Tennis Academy being so dominated by three TA players that none of them lost to a non-TA player either in Singles or doubles
• winning the LTA Team Tennis Premier Division national title three years in a row - remaining undefeated in all that time;
• filling two out of three places in the British national team - on two occasions;
• 
  

Take a bow Jaquelyn Ogunwale, Alexandra McDonald, Given Roach, Leah Gonzales-Edwards, Kate Mansfield, Natalya Ogunwale, Ekua Youri, Cheyenne Joyce Borg, Islay Thornicroft, Annalise Smith, Nina Blay, Katie Kan.

Teta Thuku-Benzinge was amongst our very first batch of just four students that we educated all the way from Primary through to A Level - in what was then our Tennis & Education programme before we formally registered as an independent school.

Teta decided early on to pursue an academic future, and as she was clearly very capable, we supported her to excel in her studies and she was accepted into Cambridge University. From there she was accepted as a Technology Analyst at Morgan Stanley (and here you see her lighting up Times Square, New York).

Our Principal Ilge Alpay was the driving force behind Teta's education, without any previous experience as a teacher whatsoever. Not content with getting one of her first four students into Oxbridge - she also guided Mandi Furaji into Oxford University from the same small batch.

Perhaps our greatest achievement is that we achieved everything we did while operating out of a public park, entirely self-funded, and on dilapidated outdoor tennis courts until 2020. Many of our players are not financially affluent. Our founding principle has been to help those who wanted to help themselves.

Players contributed what they could, even if not financially - for example helping to coach younger children. They were hungry and appreciated the opportunity, and were not precious about training on no frills facilities. Their attitude and fighting spirit made them feared and respected around Europe.

Now we have newly resurfaced courts and we stand alone as the only tennis academy in the country registered as an independent school. We offer elite-level tennis training as standard yet our fees are lower than almost every other independent school.

We remain entirely outside of the LTA system by choice, and we know nobody quite understands how we achieve what we do!

Limits cannot be pushed by prescribed ideas, groupthink, or standardised methods - but by innovation and ingenuity, doing things never been done before.

Could you benefit from having us in your corner? Not just when the going is smooth, but ESPECIALLY when the going gets tough and problems need solving?

In June 2024 Jack Pinnington Jones (above and below) defeated British No.1, and world No.39, Cameron Norrie 1-6 6-4 6-4 at the ATP Nottingham Open