Lawn Tennis Association president Peter Bretherton celebrated his first year in the post by reflecting on a successful 12 months for the sport in this country.

Bretherton, who has been a member of Heaton Tennis & Squash Club for over 30 years, was speaking during the annual meeting at the National Tennis Centre in Roehampton.

“Overall it has been a good year for British tennis and we will continue to work hard to ensure we achieve further successes in 2012 and beyond,” he said.

As well as hailing progress at the elite level of the game, Bretherton said his biggest priority is participation and ensuring that the expected increase in playing the game during the Olympics does not fall away once the Games come to an end.

He explained that the LTA had invested £7.1million in places to play tennis and that over 50,000 juniors competed in six or more matches a year.

Bretherton said: “My priority as LTA president is to grow British tennis and as I reflect on the year I’m delighted to see we’ve made real progress across a number of areas, from participation through to performance tennis.

“Some highlights were the launch of ‘allplay’ in June, the AEGON Schools’ Tennis programme, run by the Tennis Foundation and supported by the LTA, and the first-ever victory for the British team at the Junior Davis Cup.”