What we must do if we want another Wimbledon winner

The report by the Tennis Foundation charity revealed that the number and quality of courts vary widely between boroughs - as does the cost to use one.

In some boroughs, they are free to use and available all-year round, while in the City, for example, the two courts cost £15 an hour at peak times. Today, a week before the start of Wimbledon, London councils were urged to upgrade their facilitiesto encourage more people to take up tennis. The two worst-offending boroughs according to the foundation were Redbridge and Hounslow.

In Redbridge, all 40 of its courts were said to be "poor" while in Hounslow 19 of its 59 courts were derelict and another one was out of use because it had no net.

However, the report showed that some public courts are kept in excellent condition. Merton, for instance, has transformed some of its facilities.

Three years ago, the courts at Sir Joseph Hood memorial playing fields were plagued by weeds growing through cracks in the concrete surface. Now the weeds are long gone and the courts have been resurfaced and painted. Another council highly commended by the foundation was Enfield, where nearly half of its 70 courts were rated either "good" or "very good".

Haringey is set to become another success story after becoming the first and only London borough to be selected by the foundation as one of five tennis "hot spots".

This is in recognition of the borough's efforts to promote the sport among all sections of the community.

It will bring a substantial increase in funding and support in trying to attract more people to the game.

This will ensure the council, clubs, coaches and schools work more closely together to provide high- quality tennis facilities and coaching and encourage greater participation.

Dhiren Basu, Haringey's cabinet member for recreation and leisure services, said: "We've always believed that people should have the same sporting opportunities, no matter what their background or economic circumstances. That's why we recently reviewed our leisure pricing policy to try to encourage more lower-income families to make use of our leisure facilities.

"I'm thrilled that the Tennis Foundation has recognised our efforts to encourage sport and physical exercise across all of our communities and that we've been selected as the first tennis 'hot spot' in London.

"This new programme will open up even more opportunities for our residents to take up tennis and may even help us produce a future Wimbledon champion."

The aim is to create more free facilities for residents and dedicated tennis programmes for every primary school in the borough. It is hoped that more youngsters can follow in the footsteps of the current British no 1, Anne Keothavong. The 24-year-old from Hackney - ranked no92 in the world - grew up playing tennis at Hackney Downs Park and Highbury Fields.

Sue Mappin, executive director of the Tennis Foundation, said that two million people played tennis just once a year - usually just ahead of Wimbledon.

She continued: "A lot of those people will be in London but they play once and then put their racket back in the loft or cupboard. Our plan is to get to those people and signpost them to somewhere they can become more involved in regular tennis.

"Our most important area of work is to encourage more coaches to take on the tennis delivery in schools and parks in their area. It happens in France and America - in the French Open there were 28 French players in the men's and women's singles. It has taken 20 years for them to achieve that sort of impact at the top level of the game." Ms Mappin, a former Grand Slam player and national women's team manager, said that promoting the sport in the five London Olympic boroughs would not be easy.

She added: "Newham will be a real challenge for tennis but let's just get people playing on a regular basis and then we can tackle the Newhams."