The Tennis Foundation proud to support the British Ethnic Diversity Sports Awards

This will be the second time that the Tennis Foundation has supported the event by being a headline sponsor, with Rashida Salloo winning the first Tennis Foundation Special Recognition Award last year for her work taking tennis to communities in Yorkshire through her initiative 'Ready Steady Active'.

The awards, which are now in their third year, are organised by Sporting Equals, the national partner of Sport England and advisors to the Department of Culture, Media and Sport and celebrate sporting excellence within black and minority ethnic communities to help inspire the next generation.

The Tennis Foundation Special Recognition Award recognises someone, or a group of people who have gone above and beyond to encourage and enable ethnic minorities to play sport. It is underpinned by the Tennis Foundation's belief that anybody can play tennis from any background and any community and our work aims to help people achieve their personal potential through tennis.

"We are delighted to support the British Ethnic Diversity Sports Awards again in 2017," said Mike Bain, Director of Community Tennis at the Tennis Foundation. "At the Tennis Foundation we are passionate about opening up tennis to everyone, no matter what their background. Last year's winner Rashida was a brilliant example and we're looking forward to celebrating the excellent work of someone else this year."

The British Ethnic Diversity Sports Awards take place on the 18th of March in an awards ceremony which will see the Sportsman and Sportswoman of the year crowned with an impressive line up of nominees including Sir Mo Farah, Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill, Maro Itoje, Lutalo Mohammed, Nicola Adams and Kadeena Cox.

The Lycamobile BEDSAs are supported by Sport England, UK Sport, The Tennis Foundation, Youth Sport Trust, England Athletics, The Armed Forces, Mind and Spirit of 2012.