Millfield appoints Team Bath’s Alexandra Walker as new Director of Tennis

Leading independent school Millfield in Somerset has appointed former Women's Tennis Association (WTA) professional Alexandra Walker to head up the school’s growing tennis department.

Former GB top 10 ranked player Alexandra joins Millfield from the Team Bath Tennis programme after an extensive career at the International High-Performance Centre which was named University of the Year in the national 2020 Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) Awards. Team Bath Tennis is recognised as one of the most notable performance centres in the UK and has been home to current British number 4 Liam Broady and WTA world No. 180 Samantha Murray Sharan.

Alexandra has experience on the junior circuit, winning five junior international titles, reaching the top 5 ranked players in Great Britain and competing at Junior Wimbledon at the age of 16.

In her role at Millfield, Alexandra is looking to further build upon the strong foundations already in place to create a world-class training environment in which students can achieve excellence both within their tennis and their academics.

Millfield’s Tennis Academy is the leading co-educational tennis school in the country, allowing students to compete to the highest level whilst gaining academic qualifications. The school’s High-Performance Programme is led by LTA accredited coaches and provides athletic development training, individual lessons, sports science and tournament support. Recreational players can take part in a full participation summer term programme. Millfield tennis players are frequently awarded scholarships to universities in the United States and go on to play professional tennis: notable alumni include former British number 1 Andrew Castle, Scott Clayton (ATP 173 Doubles), Purav Raja (ATP 112 doubles) and Luke Hammond (International Tennis Federation ITF 144 Junior).

Millfield competes in various tournaments (LTA, ITF and Tennis Europe) and fixtures against other academies, counties, clubs and universities and runs summer camps for established junior players, aged 8 - 14, which are open to the public. Facilities at the Academy include an indoor tennis centre, two grass courts and over 20 outdoor hard courts.

Alexandra Walker says, “This is an incredibly exciting opportunity to work within one of the most prestigious schools in the world, which has a longstanding tradition for developing some of Great Britain’s top tennis players. As an individual I am hugely passionate about dual development and supporting athletes across all aspects of their lives, so Millfield’s mission to help students achieve excellence across both their sporting and their academic endeavours is something that inherently resonates with my own values and philosophies. From my experiences working across all areas of tennis I have witnessed first-hand how involvement in sport can be a transformative experience for individuals. At Millfield, I want to make sure that every student is provided with the opportunity not only to play tennis but to learn through tennis, so that through sport we are equipping our students for life after Millfield and contributing to the development of our future leaders.”