The head of Bermuda Lawn Tennis Association is entering his 11th – and probably last – year in the position.

But 2010 promises to be the busiest year ever for David Lambert who saw his final year begin with a bang last weekend when Gavin Manders was voted Male Athlete of the Year at the Annual Sports Awards.

"It is a tremendous amount of satisfaction when you see sportsmen receive awards such as Sportsman of the Year and also to see young Tyler Smith get a Special Recognition Award," said Lambert.

"These things did not just happen – we have been working hard over the years. It is not a one-time thing. We are seeing more and more of our young players excelling in the sports overseas like Tyler who is the best (in her age group) in the Caribbean. And more young players are being offered college scholarships (for tennis)."

Looking forward to the next 12 months, Lambert said: "This is going to be a huge year for tennis in Bermuda. Later this month some of our young players travel to Trinidad for the 14 and Under Caribbean Championships. Last year we won the 13 and Unders and we have never entered the 14 and Unders until this year.

"The reason for that was because of the dates. In the past it has been hard to get the students out of school for that tournament because they have just come back from their mid-term break. But we have now been fortunate that the parents have realised the importance of the tournament and the schools have cooperated."

Then in April players fly the flag at the Junior Davis and Fed Cups.

"They leave on April 9 to go to El Salvador and a couple of weeks after that we will send the Fed Cup team to Ecuador. We have a lot of teams travelling in the first quarter of the year – we are really very, very busy. All of these tournaments help establish our level of play internationally and it gives us a good idea what to do domestically in order to prepare for these overseas tournaments."

Early in the summer Bermuda will host their own international tournament – the ITF Bank of Bermuda Foundation Tournament.

"That I believe will be our eighth year," said Lambert. "Then we have the CAC Games in Puerto Rico and the Davis Cup will also be held in Puerto Rico. This summer we also have the Junior Olympic Games in Singapore and the Jitic tournament in Mexico where we send out juniors every year. And of course later in the year we have the Commonwealth Games in India, so it is going to be a massive year for tennis."

And Lambert said the rise of tennis over the years has not happened by luck. "It has been by design," he said.

"We have been feeling a tremendous amount of accomplishment thanks to Government, our corporate sponsors and our many volunteers in the different committees. But more importantly the BLTA have been working very closely with the International Tennis Federation (ITF) who are the governing body of tennis. From them we have strengthened our school initiative programme with the help of sponsorship from ACE. This will be our 10th year of the school programme which starts this Friday and carries on for three Fridays now such has it grown over the years.

"And with the ITF we have gone to seminars and had coaching courses – one of which was held in Bermuda last year. This all strengthens the sport here."

A year ago Lambert was elected to another two-year term as president.

"This is my last year," he said, adding that he first took the position in 1995. "I have not been president consecutively. I have come back after other presidents had finished their terms and sometimes when they didn't finish their terms for one reason or another. The board had asked if I would come back and I did and have enjoyed it tremendously."

Because of personal commitments this will probably be Lambert's final year in charge.

"It is a strong possibility that I will not be standing for re-election but I have promised the board that I will do all I can to assist with the growth of the sport in Bermuda. I expect to be heavily involved with different programmes that I have been working on at Elbow Beach (where he is tennis director) and I am also very interested in returning to competition. "One of the main reasons I may not run for re-election is the amount of time I will be off the Island – it may not allow me to do the job expected of me because I simply will not be here. Tennis is not just my sport but also my business. But there definitely are people here who can step in and do a great job as president."

In his final year Lambert wants to see more girls stay with the sport.

He admitted: "We do tend to lose them between the ages of 15 and 18. In fact it is not just us in Bermuda who have a hard time keeping them at that age but all over the world.

"But I will say that right now we do have a good group of juniors (females) coming through and we hope they stay committed. But it is a lot of hard work.

"We have been thinking about reintroducing team tennis and making it more social for the young ladies. But this year we will see our young ladies represented at all the (international) tournaments on our schedule."