Fewer people are joining tennis clubs, threatening the existence of some village clubs, the Dutch tennis association KNLTB said on Monday.

In 2010, over 700,000 people in the Netherlands were members of a tennis club, but this has now fallen to 615,000 – a drop of 14%. In particular youngsters are rejecting tennis in favour of team sports like football and hockey.

‘We expect some clubs to get into difficulty because they are now using up their financial reserves,’ spokesman Marco van Holten told news agency ANP.

‘Some clubs will have to merge,’ he said. ‘Every village has its own tennis club and it remains to be seen if that situation can continue.’