Juniors

There is a very active junior section in the club.

In the summer we organise a club night on Friday evenings, run an annual summer tournament and enter teams in the National Junior Club League, mini & Little Leagues as well as running events such as The Road to Wimbledon.

Surrey Junior championship - August 2009

Sheen junior tennis member Linnea Bengtsson, aged 12, was one of the select few British players who qualified to play in the 2009 HSBC Road to Wimbledon National 14 and under Challenge played at the All England Lawn Tennis Club (August 17th - 22nd).

Thousands of junior players entered the HSBC Road to Wimbledon this year and only the 128 most talented boys and girls, who won through three stages of competition qualified to contest the National Finals on the famous grass courts at Wimbledon.

During finals week the players compete in round robin groups of 4 with only the top 2 players in each group moving into a 32-player knock out draw. Congratulations are due to Linnea who showed great skill and determination in coming out on top in her group winning all 3 singles matches. Linnea demonstrated excellent consistency, creativity in exploiting the angles and depth of shot in her matches against girls up to 2 years older from Avon, Sussex and Nottingham.

Whilst Linnea lost a very closely contested match in the main draw to Sezan Walker from Middlesex, she has benefited greatly from the experience and will surely go from strength to strength. Commenting on her week at Wimbledon Linnea said:- "Playing at Wimbledon was such an amazing experience. I was really surprised and excited to have won my round robin box and to get through to the main draw with the best 32 girls in Great Britain. Every match I played I felt a buzz of excitement playing on the grass at Wimbledon and looking across at No. 1 court. Playing on the grass was a lot different to other surfaces - there was much more variety in the game with lots of drop shots, slices and short angles. At the end of each day, I was shattered as I was sometimes playing two 2 hour matches finishing at about 8.00pm.

The highlights of the week were playing on court 19, the players party and the dressing rooms which had wonderful showers!! I'm looking forward to the clinic with Tim Henman on Saturday. This experience is something I will never forget!!"

Tim Henman after coaching Linnea at Wimbledon