TENNIS fans had an ace time taking selfies as the sport’s most prestigious trophy paid a visit to Southend.

The Davis Cup stopped off at Southend Tennis and Leisure Centre, in Eastern Avenue, yesterday as part of a nationwide tour after Great Britain won the premier men’s tennis event last year.

Team GB is in the semis again and Andy Murray, hero of last year’s triumph, went on to win BBC Sports Personality of the Year.

Graham Wells, a volunteer with Essex Tennis, said the victory was helping to attract more youngsters to the game.

He said: “When Britain won the David Cup last year, the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) decided to try and use it for a legacy-type event to try and increase participation and get some engagement going in the circumstances.

“What they decided to do is take the trophy on a tour. It’s going to every single county within the UK during the year that Britain has it.

“It’s about trying to use the opportunity to increase participation.

“We have got short tennis going on, we have got the opportunity for people to try wheelchair tennis and later there is going to be some cardio tennis going on.

“If there is a future Davis Cup winner among them, then it will all have been worthwhile.”

Visitors spent yesterday morning queuing up to take photos with the trophy.

Joanna Rimmington, 15, and sister Rebecca, 19, took a couple of selfies.

Joanna said: “It’s quite a good achievement to have won it. I play tennis myself and just wanted to come and see the trophy.”

Finlay Milner, trophy ambassador for the LTA, was on hand throughout the day to tell people about the cup, which weighs a whopping 218kg and stand 1.13 metres tall.

He said: “It’s got all the trophy winners since 1923 engraved on it and each entry has got the winners and runners up and the country’s that were in the group finals.

“There is a dedicated team to move it around. It comes in four pieces and has to be picked up quite carefully because it’s all Stirling silver.”

Neil Twitchett, regional participation officer for the LTA, said more people were becoming interested in the game because of the nation’s success.

He said: “Southend for us one of our focused areas to increase participation. The great thing about winning the trophy is that it has created a buzz around tennis. We are really pleased to have it in Southend to get more people playing tennis and trying the game out.”