Davis Cup star Jamie Murray believes the new tennis bubble in Northwood will be a significant boost for young players in the sport.

Virgin Active Northwood unveiled the new £250,000 tennis bubble last week and Murray, who helped Great Britain reach the final of the Davis Cup, opened the facility alongside former players Jeremy Bates, Jo Durie and Junior Tennis Coaching's David Felgate.

Murray, who will play a key role for Britain in the doubles in November's Davis Cup final in Belgium, said: "Dave, Alan [Jones] and Jo have been doing great things for British tennis for quite a long time. It's nice to be able to support them in something they're doing and to get a bubble up is great for the winter. It's a long winter here and it gives the kids the chance to play on a surface that they're going to be competing on.

"I think it helps purely from the weather. From October through to March, we can't play outdoors. It's just too difficult with the weather and even if it's nice the hours in the day you actually get to play outside because of temperature and darkness is reduced.

"The fact it takes the weather out of the game means kids can get out there and play all hours of the day which is a great thing. It's probably something we need more of up and down the country."

Junior Tennis Coaching has operated at Virgin Active Northwood for the past three years and Tim Henman's former coach Felgate believes the bubble will help give young players a better opportunity to play the sport all year round.

Felgate said: "What we've got here is a members club and you have indoor courts where there's a need for the membership but now with this bubble it means every day of the week and weekends from seven in the morning through to night court availability is there for performance to happen.

"That's a big factor because the most important thing for young players is court time and getting them out there so that's what we've achieved by putting this new facility up.

"We try to limit our numbers in terms of 20 in our programme but in terms of what it will do for the club and the young players coming through it will be very popular.

"Kids are crying out to play all the time and especially in these coming months when the weather's not great it will really enhance their tennis and the coaches will be able to get on court a lot more."

Felgate added: "With the opening of the bubble it now means incredible facilities for our players all year around.

"Bubbles have been around a long time but like anything they keep improving and when you look inside and see it now it's got an incredible airy feel about it. The lighting is very good and also the actual court has been resurfaced so it's a nice slow hard court which is one of the best surfaces to bring the players up on."

Northwood's bubble is one of only four venues to have PlaySight SmartCourt technology installed which will enable players to watch video footage of their action within seconds.

Professionals Borna Coric and Donna Vekic have spent time training in Northwood over the last few years and the new facilities are expected to encourage more tennis pros to use this as a base.

European chief operating officer of Virgin Active Matt Merrick said: "We're always looking to bring new innovation to the table as we really want to make sure members are getting an excellent service. You can't get these kinds of facilities in many clubs in the country.

"There are only four clubs using PlaySight currently and we're one of them. The other clubs are Queen's, Stoke Park and the All England Club so we are bringing that innovation to our members and we're really proud of that."

He added: "I play a little bit of tennis and just had a go on our PlaySight equipment which is real time video of your tennis play. It facilitates great coaching as well because you can actually see yourself on screen within seconds of playing those shots.

"Obviously working with JTC here and Virgin Active we've got the best quality coaches and also now got the best quality innovations in the tennis world. I think we'll bring more people into this club that are playing at the higher end of the tennis spectrum."