News
Juinior Wimbledon memories
Posted on 06th Jul 2020
Wimbledon fortnight is here, a calendar highlight, especially for our talented Academy juniors and their coaches. Along with tennis fans all over the world, we will miss it this year and we are feeling nostalgic. Here are some memories from 2019 and keep scrolling to read insights from Academy Alumni Esther and 11+ Performance Manger Rich's experiences at this world famous event.
Summer 2019
⠀
THREE of our juniors competed in the Championships - Erin, Toby, and Jack. The talented trio should've been the fab four, with Esther narrowly missing out on qualifying after an epic 3.5 hour match.⠀
⠀
Impressive performances from everyone on those world famous courts with Toby and his doubles partner Arthur reaching the Boys Semi-Finals before bowing out to the eventual champions
⠀
We are incredibly proud of our amazing crew who nurture and train these committed young players. With the support of our partner schools, this team effort brings out the very best of our juniors potential and we LOVE watching them achieve this.
Esther's Junior Wimbledon memories
Wimbledon was an unbelievable experience for me especially playing at 15. ⠀
⠀
My favourite part was when I came back from down in the second set and won the set and reaction that I got from the crowd was unreal, it just showed how much support I truly had behind me.⠀
⠀
Another highlight was the way we were looked after, we were treated so well, like we were pros, from the security guiding you on to and off the court to driving into the venue in the official Wimbledon Car. And the £250 gift voucher was a bonus too!
11+ Performance Manager Rich Irwin's top three Wimbledon memories
Tuesday trio - 5 years after our first Academy player played the event, in 2019 3 of our players (Erin, Toby and Jack) were on court at the same time, on the second Tuesday. ⠀
⠀
Equates to 16% of Wimbledon courts during the championships with our players on it. Nightmare for me as a coach but incredible achievement!⠀
⠀
Erin winning the first singles match of any West Hants player at the Championships. An unbelievable feeling especially as it was her first time playing singles there. Erin didn’t have a huge experience of playing in big events prior to this and it just highlighted how big her improvement had been throughout the previous years. ⠀
⠀
Jodie’s first performance at the Championships in 2014 was the first player to have come through the Academy to compete there so an incredibly proud and special moment.
Read more junior success stories
