'It’s been a very difficult time for the kids’ – Portsmouth Tennis Academy hoping for some good news from Boris Johnson soon

Yet, the harsh reality is their doors are currently closed for the third time in just under a year.

Such has been the growth of Portsmouth Tennis Academy since the centre on Burnaby Road reopened in 2013, it has been recognised as the leading tennis provider across Hampshire.

Headed up by PTA director of tennis, Kevin Baker, who's been working out of the centre since it was officially opened in 1993, it's become the epicentre in the city for junior programme players.

Normally, the academy's coaches put on daily sessions at the centre's four indoor and five outdoor courts for hundreds of children from the Portsmouth and surrounding areas.

But, sadly, because of the current nationwide lockdown Baker, who took on the running of the programme and centre in 2013, has been unable to open the facility since the start of last month.

With vaccinations continuing to be rolled out, he is optimistic over potentially opening the outdoor courts by Easter - and Boris Johnson’s ‘roadmap out of lockdown’ announcement on Monday could give more clarity regarding their restart date.

Baker said: 'It has been a very difficult time.

'It’s been a difficult time for so many different people, but for the kids especially.

‘Obviously, we’re very much a kids-operated programme, probably 80 per cent of what we do down there is with kids, it’s a big programme.

‘It has been a very difficult year and tennis is a skills sport so from the point of view when the kids come back - when they’ve been off for two or three months - it’s time again to try to get back to where we were.

‘It’s been a challenge as we’re in our third lockdown. I’m hoping maybe we could at least get back individually outdoors by the end of March, around Easter time, that’s what I’m hoping.

‘Maybe the groups can start again after Easter with the kids. Maybe with a minimum with four on a court or six on a court which would allow us to get things moving again.

‘As far as the indoor facility goes, I’ve no idea at the moment, I just hope we can get it back for the autumn which is when we need it for.'

When open, the academy can welcome around 300 children each week with adult sessions and court hire making the numbers even greater.

There was a period when a full-time programme was available for players who wanted to obtain coaching qualifications through the centre.

It proved a fruitful time for PTA with Baker helping produce a number of professional coaches as well as sending course members on scholarships in America.

But since that was stopped because of a government school ruling change, Baker's focus has turned predominantly back to grassroots.

It's still something he takes great satisfaction providing out of the academy and he believes the conveyor belt of high performance talent should inevitably come through in the years to come.

'We had a full-time academy so the kids would come to me at 15 or 16 and then they’d do two years on court playing and training,' he recalled.

‘It was a great system. Some of them would go into coaching, some of them had come straight from school and they’d made their minds up they wanted to do their level one and two coaching exams and qualifications which we did for them.

‘Some of them were playing full-time and wanted to see how far they could go with it.

‘That was really, really successful but then the government stopped it and it changed the whole set up, really.

'We’ve gone back a little bit more to grassroots and development tennis, more across the community, trying to get more kids from schools in.

‘It’s kind of the route we’ve gone again so we see ourselves where we were a few years ago, we’re going through that whole thing again.

‘I think what will happen over the next two or three years, if when we come back this time that we don’t experience anymore lockdowns, it will grow for sure.

‘What will happen, naturally, is the younger players we’ve got will slowly start to evolve into match players who are playing more tournaments and are more performance-orientated.

‘Another two or three years down the road, we’ll probably have another group of maybe 15 or 20 decent kids again - it will happen, for sure, we can do that all the time. We’re very good with doing that.'

Baker splits his time between running the academy in Portsmouth and overseeing the career progress of his American-based professional son, Blu.

The 19-year-old is full-time at the Gomez Tennis Academy in Florida, having moving to the States permanently at the age of 13.

Baker admitted it has been a bit of a struggle running things at PTA while missing out on watching Blu grow as a player and a person.

But he admits he still gets as much pleasure out of stepping onto the court with a youngster as he would his own flesh and blood.

‘I’m happy to go on the court with a five or six year old as I am with Blu who was like 70 in the world on the junior circuit,' he added.

‘I still enjoy it. I’m not looking at getting out of it, I just want to carry on working on the court, I love it.

‘I’m happy, I’ve always been down and fronted the programme up, I’ve been very lucky.

‘I’ve got a good coach working with me at the moment, Claire Overton - she’s someone who’s been on the programme since the age of 10.

‘Claire’s done a fantastic job with the younger players and just keeping the place and the whole programme going.

‘It’s been a busy programme right along.'

Portsmouth Tennis Academy business manager, Nigel Bowen, who took up the position three years ago, believes it's a worrying time for leisure centres and indoor tennis facilities in particular.

He conceded they were unsure what numbers would be attracted back to the centre when it fully reopened last September after the initial lockdown.

Thankfully, the numbers returned and Bowen is confident that - should there be no further lockdowns implemented once the current restrictions are lifted - the centre will get back on its feet again.

'Across the country it’s not good for indoor leisure centres and particularly for indoor tennis,' he said.

‘I think a lot of businesses are in a worse position than us and we’ll wait to see what happens and how many close.

‘This time last year we didn’t know how it would affect us long term.

‘We had a certain amount of resilience that helped us through (the initial lockdown).

‘The model that I created and the margins we were running to ensured a certain amount of resilience for a few months.

‘The engine of our programme is the junior programme, the after-schools programme, so it made sense to start with the schools going back which is what we did in September.

‘Although it was with some considerable trepidation because we did not know what our numbers were going to be like.

‘Fortunately, for us, our reputation preceded us in this case and having built up a faithful, loyal and substantial customer base we found a lot of players and customers came back. Far more than we expected and more quickly than we expected.

‘That was because we have a good brand, that brand is chiefly focused on Kevin himself. He’s been at that centre for 25/30 years.

‘Having reopened twice now in September and December, we’re confident that our players and customers will come back. But no more lockdowns, please.'