A young pupil at a Harrogate prep school will be putting her tennis skills to the test when she represents Yorkshire in a regional competition later this month.
Elizabeth Tate, 9, at Belmont Grosvenor School, only started playing tennis two years ago and has already notched up some major wins on the circuit.
Now the Year 5 pupil has been selected to play for Yorkshire in the U10 County Cup competition, which takes place in Lytham-St-Annes on May 25 and 26.
Elizabeth will be part of a four-girl tennis team hoping to qualify for the National Finals in June this year.
In Lytham-St-Annes, the Yorkshire U10 team will be taking on young players from the North and West of Scotland, Durham, Cleveland and Cheshire – and the competition will be tough!
Elizabeth is looking forward to the County Cup competition – and dreams of becoming a famous tennis player when she grows up.
Elizabeth said:
I’d love to win Wimbledon one day and become a famous tennis player – I really love the game. My favourite player is Johanna Konta, I think she’s great.
I love learning new strokes. My favourite stroke is my forehand, it’s my most powerful shot.
Elizabeth’s mum Jane is a professional tennis coach – and is very proud of her youngest daughter’s success.
Elizabeth’s mum, Jane said:
Elizabeth never wanted to play tennis because I taught it! But once she started playing she quickly got the bug.
She began competing in Mini Tennis Orange tournaments last year and after getting a lot of wins around Yorkshire she progressed to getting her Orange star which is an LTA rating for Mini Tennis.
After being selected for Yorkshire County training last year, Elizabeth, who trains in tennis for 12 hours a week, has now moved up to the Green ball level and spends most weekends competing across Yorkshire.
In U10 competitions, Elizabeth still competes against boys – and earlier this month reached the semi finals of a competition at Bolton Arena with 24 children in the draw, 22 of which were boys!
Jane said:
We are very proud and excited about Elizabeth’s achievements so far. I used to coach her but have now passed her onto another coach as she listens to him a bit more than her mum!
Gillian Furniss, Head of Girls PE at Belmont Grosvenor School said all the pupils and staff at BGS were proud of Elizabeth’s achievements and would be watching the result with interest.
Mrs Furniss said:
We are all really proud – this is fantastic news. Elizabeth is a great tennis player and we wish her lots of success.
