JUDY Murray, mother of Wimbledon champion Andy Murray, is backing a campaign to save a tennis club.

Judy, a former Scottish international tennis player, 59, said it would be ‘“so sad” to see the closure of Badgers in Kemp Town, Brighton. one of the country’s oldest tennis clubs.

It is threatened with closure at the beginning of December after the landlords decided not to renew the lease in a bid to develop the site for housing.

It is owned by the Chotai brothers, the multi-millionaires who own the nationwide Kamsons pharmacy chain.

They bought the club, which was established in 1895, in 2010, with plans to carry out development work.

Judy, a renowned tennis coach, tweeted to her 242,000 Twitter followers: “Places and spaces to play are crucial for the nation’s health and wellbeing.

“So many of our oldest clubs are in prime residential or built-up areas.

“When the leases run out, they are vulnerable to closure because the land is valuable for development. It’s so sad.”

She re-tweeted online Badgers petition at https://chn.ge/2Npp54g, which received more than 1,000 signatures with 48 hours, and dozens of her followers shared and supported the post.

Badgers chairwoman Liz Foster said: “Having Judy backing us and caring so much for clubs like ours being saved means so much.

“Badgers is not just about tennis – it’s a lifeline for many people who rely on it for all sorts of reasons.”

The club has also received backing from the area’s councillors Gill Mitchell, Warren Morgan and Nancy Platts, along with Kemptown MP Lloyd Russell-Moyle, who has tabled a motion in Parliament urging its landlords to “respond positively to the club’s many approaches and grant it a new lease”.

Ms Foster said the club had been trying to talk to the Chotais – Bharat, Bipin and Peter – since the club received the shock news in February.

She said: “We have done everything to try and get them to talk to us.

“Members are absolutely devastated that the club is in imminent danger of being closed but we are not giving up hope.

“We are very much part of the Kemp Town community.”

Last week, the Chotais issued this statement to The Argus: “Badgers Tennis Club occupy land which is owned by Kemp Town Tennis Club Ltd, which was sold at a substantial premium in 2012 to Chotai Brothers as potential development land by two prominent members of the club who were coaches at the club and running the club.

“Badgers is a private members’ club.

“At the time, the continuity of the club was uncertain and it was let on a temporary basis, for a number of years, at an affordable rent allowing time to work out the future of the club.

“Chotai brothers have indicated their willingness that if the acquired club land was to get planning permission for development and there was public demand for tennis courts in the area, then they would be willing to help fund tennis courts, open to the public, for example at the council-owned land less than 50 yards from the current club site.”