Summer 2010

Wow! The weather is great, WTA players are competing all over the UK and Europe and I survived my 40th!!

Its all go this Summer - Weybridge has been full of young players enjoying themselves at the WTA Summer Camp, brilliantly led by Phil Parkin and Mark Siddall and the following results have ensured that July was a great month for WTA's competing juniors:

Jodie Burrage WINNER - Pit Farm GS12's, Alex Page WINNER - Westway BS 9's, Jack Draper WINNER - St. George's Hill BS 10's, Harvey Conway WINNER - Limpsfield BS 9's, Michael Manghami WINNER - Woking BS 10's + St. George's Hill BS 9's, Ben Draper WINNER - Woking BD 12's + St. George's Hill BD 12's, Andrew Watson WINNER - Limpsfield BS 14's, Maxime Trenikhin WINNER - Westway BD 12's.

There were also finals, semi finals and quarter finals for: Harry Barham, Hannah Ferrett, Juliette Inverdale, Nicola Joyce, Olivia Berry, Catherine Blayze, Daisy Phillips, Jamie Boden, Caroline Watson, Chester Gash, Katie Preston, Dominika Rozanska, Stefan Davis, Louis Regan, George Elliott, David Fox, Ben Davies and Christian Throm-Jones. With 4 weeks of competition left there is still plenty of time for more players to shine!!

AUTUMN TERM UPDATE

I am currently putting the programme together so that everyone continues to receive the best coaching and top hitting partners. If you have any specific requests please email me before August 13th.

Sessions are to be a little shorter from September, but prices will remain the same. We have kept the same low price for the past 5 years and we feel that by making each session 1.75 hrs it will give more space for the players without the crossover 30 minutes taking up space and a coach.

I have recently been appointed Head Coach of St George's Hill which I view very much as a move in the right direction for WTA and its players. I am very keen for there to be a close relationship between WTA and SGH in the future. My committment as Director of WTA will not be affected at all, since the majority of work I am doing will be during the day.

Spring 2010

Tennis Director Justin Sherring will be on annual leave from 19th March - 3rd April. Please contact Mark Siddall, if you have any urgent issues. 07811 210905

SUMMER TERM SIGN UP

Registration for the Summer Term is underway. All players/parents need to confirm training days with Justin asap. Payment can be made via online banking for the first time and is accompanied by a 5% discount!! Registration Forms can also be returned electronically. The Summer Term is always very busy so don't delay!

Weekend of 13/14th March: Oscar Newman and Jorge Wilton win respective grade 4 and 3 events. Nice one fellas!!

Jack Draper plays in the U9 Masters at the National Tennis Centre and finishes a very creditable 8th out of the top 16 players in the UK. Michael Manghami, who trains with WTA on Thursdays, was a very worthy winner and Masters Champion 2010!

Feb/March Update

Hi Everyone and dare I say it……Welcome to Spring!!

What a disappointing Winter in terms of the weather! If it wasn’t for the very high spirits and great results that our players continue to have, Winter could have been very depressing!!

But no, players training at WTA have had the most successful Winter season ever! I am about to list several results which I know are simply a handful of our successes, but I have chosen achievements that span the full spectrum of the tennis age groups – this is very special and something that we should all be proud of!

Individual Tournament Winners Red – Georgia Price, Max Anderson

Individual Tournament Winners Orange – George Pullan, Jack Draper, Matteo Loria, Ben Heynold, Blu Baker, Sophie Ivansky, Oscar Weightman, Alex Page, Michael Manghami

Individual Tournament Winners Green – Sophie Ivansky, Jack Butler, Daisy Phillips

Individual Tournament Winners Yellow – Olivia Berry (12s), Lewis Symonds (12s), Maxime Trenikhin (12s), Jodie Burrage (12s), Catherine Blayze (12s), Scott Moore (12s), Alex Peer (12s), Andrew Watson (14s), Youssef Hassan (14s), Tom Colautti (16s), Jorge Wilton, James Kelly (18s), Mark Whitehouse (18s). These are all at Grade 4 and above.

I am sorry if I have missed any players; I would love to add such players to my next Update, so please let me know! No one will miss out on a bit of stardom!

Feel good factor over and down to some news and Updates:

1. Spring Term ends week commencing Monday 22^nd March. Therefore, our last sessions of the term will be on Saturday 27^th March.

2. Summer Term starts week commencing Monday12^th April.

3. All players/parents will be receiving a mail regarding the Summer Term and how to sign up, in the next day or so; there will not be any changes to the current training schedule. Any individual requests for change of sessions will be made where possible but obviously cannot be guaranteed.

4. Players need to be registered for the Summer Term by Wednesday 17^th March to get a 5% discount on training fees. Let’s be organised and save a few quid! Remaining players need to be registered by 7^th April.

5. System for registering and paying: Confirm that you are happy to stay with the same training schedule for the Summer Term by emailing me asap. I will send a Summer Registration Form and the price. Payment can then be made electronically before 17^th March to receive 5% discount.

6. Team Tennis starts in the next few weeks. WTA have teams playing in all age groups from beginner Mini Tennis through to the Premier Division U16s. Specific dates for all players involved will be confirmed in the next few days. We are grateful for parental support in overseeing these matches.

7. Luke Campbell has returned from his trip to the U.S and has re- joined us on a part time basis at the NTC. Jono Ward will be continuing his great work with WTA and is proving very popular. Phil Parkin will carry on combining both Wey and NTC in his schedule and has done a great job so far this year. Stephen Jones continues to assist us superbly at the NTC and is also available for individual lessons. And finally, a big well done to Mark Siddall who has received his Performance Coach Award from the LTA – the highest award!

8. Rory Barham, Ollie Reading, Sophie Messim and Laura Slater continue to assist us famously at Weybridge as they continue their apprenticeship as young coaches. Great job guys! Emily Napier, WTA’s Tournament Organiser, has done a tremendous job running over 20 events this Winter at Weybridge and has shown herself to be a very talented event manager indeed!

9. A polite request to anyone who has outstanding bills to settle, please do so asap; Summer registration will not be possible until all Spring term invoices are settled.

10. I am away from the 19^th March – 2^nd April, which is a nuisance as I will miss the last week of training, but I will ensure that all squads are appropriately covered and that all WTA coaches are fully informed –they are all very capable of delivering a great final week of term!!

11. Finally, a huge thanks to all players and parents for a very, very enjoyable and productive term.

12.Send me Summer training confirmation asap to get your discount!

Kindest regards from us all!

Justin

Summer 2009

Wow! Well where did that year go??

The most successful training and competing year that WTA has had, thus far, has just passed us by and with its passing Weybridge Tennis Academy is just 8 weeks away from its 4^th birthday. Established in 2005 to help support local players and coaches in providing high quality squad coaching at one of the best indoor/outdoor facilities in Surrey, WTA has now expanded to developing its own Mini Tennis Program at St George’s College and provided a truly world class training environment at The National Tennis Centre, for higher achieving players. Three tennis coaches in 2005 have become seven and two assistants in 2009. Winning one major team title (albeit a national championship) has become nine team championships all at the highest level in Surrey. Players training at WTA this year have been selected for/competed in: National Championship winning County Cup teams, County/Regional and National LTA Talent Identification days, Tennis Europe events, International Tennis Federation competition, County Week, County and National winning schools teams and numerous individual competitions ranging from grade 7 to The Championship, Junior Wimbledon.

The 2008/9 season has seen a huge range of ages and diversity of stages of player development-and they all as important as each other!

I would like to recognise some of our numerous achievements name some of our talented players individually:-

ü U8 Boys Surrey Little League Champions-Oscar Weightman, Matteo Loria, Cameron Dollimore and Ben Heynold

ü U10 Girls Surrey Div 1 Champions-Jodie Burrage, Lily Reynolds and Emily Appleton.

ü U12 Boys Surrey Div 1 Champions-Taras Kovalevsky, Zeki Horoz, Scott Moore, Ben Draper, Timmy Horn and Sam Wilton.

ü U12b Boys Surrey Div 2 Champions-Harry Barham, Billy Dawson, George Elliott, Josh Goodger, Callum Rowe and Luke Wragg.

ü U12 Girls Surrey Div 1 Champions-Olivia Berry, Jodie Eggerdon, Kace Bartley, Millie Foster and Grace Crozier.

ü U14 Boys Surrey Div 1 Champions-Chris Reynolds, Felix Blom, Stefan Davis, James Low and Andrew Ioakimides.

ü U16 Girls Surrey Div 2 Champions-Sarah Townshend, Juliette Inverdale, Marija Nonkovic and Lauren Smith.

ü U16 Boys Surrey Div 1 Champions-Jorge Wilton, David Fox, Christian Throm-Jones, Harry Ware, Aled Loynes, James Kelly, Greg Fain and Nadim El Sayed.

ü U18 Boys Surrey Div 1 Champions-Alex Wilton, Craig Cox, Rory Barham, Justin Hendrix, Phil Hendrix and Ben Low.

Our U10 Boys and U14 Boys B team used this season to get valuable experience and will undoubtedly feature in next year’s top matches-well done boys!

Spring 2009

JACK DRAPER WINS BACK-TO-BACK ORANGE TITLES!!

WTA WIN SURREY DIVISION 1 AEGON TEAM TENNIS U12 BOYS and GIRLS

As of the end of April WTA are league leaders (solely or joint) in all 7 team Tennis age groups entered!!

Special mention this month goes to the U12 Girls who beat Sutton TA 5-1 away! A great result from 4 fantastic girls: Olivia Berry, Jodie Eggerdon, Millie Foster and Kace Bartley.

Great debuts from George Elliott, Beau Robbins and Callum Rowe saw the U12 and U14 B Teams top their respective tables-Well done lads!

Marija Nonkovic played in her first competitive match last weekend and helped WTA scure a 2-1 victory over Spencer Tennis Club. Sarah Townshend led the team to a hard fought win.

The U10s are due to get their campaigns started this month with Julian Schwarzer, a recent winner of the WTA Green Junior Tour event, heading up the WTA Team. Oliver Moore, Alex Nielsen and Charlie Taylor make up the rest of the team. Meanwhile, our girls are led by Jodie Burrage, Emily Appleton and Lily Reynolds....good luck WTA!

We have seen WTA players Oscar Weightman, Liam Krygier, Julian Schwarzer win individual competitions and the WTA Orange Boys won the first round of the Surrey Mini League and the Red Boys have won both of the opening rounds of their Surrey Mini League!

In the opening weekend of matches, WTA U16 Boys beat Sutton Tennis Academy 4-3 after an epic affair, that went down to the wire with a tie-break doubles shootout seperating the two teams. The WTA team of: David Fox, Jorge Wilton, James Kelly and Aled Loynes, fought hard to overcome the challenge of Benjamin Davis, Tom Colautti, Rhett Purcell and Billy Ellison. WTA sit at the top of Division 1 and look forward to the next challenge! Meanwhile, the U18 Boys of WTA on Esporta Croydon and had an overwhelming 6-0 win, without the loss of a set! Alex Wilton, Ben Low, Justin Hendrix and Rory Barham represented WTA with awesome effect and sent out a message to league favourites Reigate who got off to a flying start by beating Sutton Tennis Academy. Well done boys!

This weekend (28th/29th Mar) sees the WTA U12 girls get off the mark away to Westside and our U12 Boys get things going at home to Reigate. Go WTA!!

A bit of Easter fun was had at the NTC during the last week of training before the Easter break. A short tournament saw Ollie Duckworth narrowly beat Zeki Horoz in a match tie-break event run by Luke Campbell. Here is the gang! The Junior High Performance players at NTC!

Max Anderson, Olivia Berry, Jodie Eggerdon, David Fox and Laura Slater all make finals in key tournaments in Feb/March!!

Mark and I are running the London Marathon in April for The Children's Trust please visit my Justgiving web page and make a donation. http://www.justgiving.com/justinsherring

Happy New Year! Welcome to 2009 from all at WTA. This term marks the start of the Senior High Performance Training at Roehampton, Mark and Phil heading up Weybridge and all clubs needing to submit teams for the National Junior Club League sponsored by Aegon. We also need to apply for the Road To Wimbledon as a club, which is the WTA equivalent to the Club Championships for U14s, except that whoever wins it goes forward to represent WTA at the county finals..........Surrey winners get to compete at the All England Club in August!!

Olivia Berry has just won the Grade 4 Sutton Tournament!! This a great start to 2009!

Olivia beat Danielle Marshall 6-0,6-1 then Hannah Ferret 6-2,6-2 and then she beat Marsha Hobbs in the final 6-3, 6-2! Great job Olivia!!

December 08

Mark Siddall and Phil Parkin to head up Mini Tennis focus at Weybridge! WTA has announced that Mark Siddall is to take his vast Mini Tennis experience into the program at St George's College to join very experienced club and county coach, Phil Parkin, to head up the tennisat one of Surrey's top tennis venues. As well as a big Mini Tennis focus, the boys will be focused on raising the level of all club and county juniors. The Junior and Senior Performance Programmes continue to grow in popularity and Mark and Phil will be trying to improve the ratings of all players that really want to make 2009 the year of improvement!

November 08

Senior High Performance Training announced at Weybridge Tennis Academy! Following on from the great success of the Junior High Performance Training program at The National Tennis Centre, WTA have secured daily court time from 7-9pm and will set up a Senior High Performance Training program from January 09. Players may apply if they are 13yrs old or over with a rating of 8.1 or higher. Sessions will run Monday thru to Friday.

September/October 08

Milly Amos and Lewis Symonds win Junior Tour events! WTA HPT players Milly and Lewis won the girls and boys events at the recent Junior Tour event in Surrey. Both players have been working extremely hard as part of the High Performance Training programme based at the National Tennis Centre in Roehampton. HPT Performance Coach Mark Siddall was delighted with their rewards. 'It is great recognition for both players, who have given their all since starting the programme in September. They thoroughly deserve the success and I am sure that both Milly and Lewis will continue to improve'.

Emily Boden makes U12 Grand Prix main draw! HPT player Emily Boden made light work of 2 strong players at the recent qualifying event for the Grand prix Tournament 1. Playing with confidence and consistency, Emily won her first match 6-0,6-3 and the second 6-2,6-4. She joins the best players in the UK for the main draw event at the end of October. Well done Emily!!

August 08

WTA expand to National Training Centre to start a High Performance Program. Starting in September, WTA will have an evening presence at the NTC in Roehampton when it starts up an elite squad for U12's. Most of the players will be made up from the current program at Weybridge and a few top players from the region have already made enquiries. The program will run up to 4 times per week for players with National potential. Check out the High Performance tab on the menu list.

July 08

Wimbledon 2008 Star Chris Eaton pops in for a serving clinic. With 31 aces in his last round of qualifying and 27 in his first round at Wimbledon, it was no wonder the WTA players watched, listened and copied Chris as he exhibited his booming accurate serve! Chris helped to show all the juniors how to increase their racket head speed as well as signing a few autographs for good measure...the WTA girls were especially pleased!

June 08

NJCL over for another year....and WTA dominate the Surrey tennis scene yet again!!

Wow! Another hectic season of junior team tennis matches is once again complete, and WTA players yet again showed what a fantstic group of competitive warriors they all are!!

The Girls U10 captained by Liz Berry, did amazingly well and finished as Surrey Champions! Playing as a team for the first time, Olivia Berry, Chloe Burge, Lily Reynolds, Caisey Hill Shaw and Grace Crozier played incredibly well in beating: Roehampton 5-1, Esporta Croydon 4-2 and the biggest scalp of all, Sutton Junior Tennis Centre 5-1. In the Regional Play-Offs they were narrowly beaten by the Sussex champions Eastbourne. A great result for our girls and a big thanks to Liz Berry for doing a wonderful job as captian.

Our boys U10 had 5 tough matches to get through in the Surrey league, but 'get through' them they did!!! 5 wins out 5 ensured that our U10 Boys also became Surrey Champions!!Captained by Hannah Gray, the team of Alastair Gray, Taras Kovalevsky, Ben Draper, Sam Wilton and Timmy Horn overcame the challenges of Wimbledon Junior Tennis, Surbiton, Haslemere, Esporta Croydon and Sutton Tennis Academy. The boys then went a stage further by winning the Regional Play-off against Bradfield College, to become Regional Champions! Fantastic!

The U12 boys won through 4 comfortable matches before coming up against pre-event favourites Sutton Tennis Academy in the final group match. Captained by Graham Rhodes, the team of Stefan Rhodes, James Low, Chris Reynolds and Keiran Macarty played their hearts out only to lose on a tie-break shoot out! Sutton were crowned champs and WTA had to settle for Surrey Runners-Up. The narrowest of margins saw 3 months of tennis come down to 1 tie-break......great effort boys!!

WTA Boys teams U14 have an outstanding track record and were crowned National Champions in 2006, so the 2008 crew had a lot to live up to! After 2 teams had withdrawn and after fairly straightforward wins over Surbiton and Woking, WTA were once again pitted against Sutton Tennis Academy! An outstanding performance from David Fox, Jorge Wilton, Christian Throm-Jones and Callum Macarty saw WTA cruise to a 5-1 win and yet another county title! Surrey Champions 2008...brilliant effort and many thanks to all the parents for their joint captaincy!

Our girls U14 team made light work of beating The Bourne, David Lloyd, Foxhills and Woking before coming up against a very strong Sutton Academy team who were determined to prevail. Daniela Persaud, Juliette Inverdale, Nicola Joyce, Emily Boden and Sophie Messim put up a brave fight but came out second best. WTA Surrey Runners-Up. Many thanks to Tara Persaud for all her support and hard work as captain.

...and finally our Boys U16s ended up as Surrey Runners-Up to a great Woking team who thoroughly deserved the county title. After both teams had convincingly beaten pre-event favourites Sutton Tennis Academy, WTA and Woking battled it out for the title. WTA's team of Alex Wilton, Ben Low, Justin and Phil Hendrix and Aled Loynes were narrowly beaten 2-4 by the determined Woking side. Celia Low captained the WTA team and did a very good job! Surrey Runners-Up.

A year to remember...1 Regional Title, 3 County Championships and 3 Runners-Up places watch out WTA are about!!

May 08

R2 Wimbledon Champs 2008 Christian Throm-Jones and Kelly Burge!!

The WTA Road to Wimbledon tournament concluded with 2 new winners in Christian and Kelly. Christian beat Sam East in a tough battle whilst Kelly beat Sophie Messim in a well contested match. They both move on to the County Finals and a step closer to playing at the All England Club on the 'hallowed turf!'

Apr 08

SHEEN G3 GRAND PRIX 08

The WTA crew! Christian Throm-Jones and David Fox

Weybridge Tennis Academy dominate the quarter finals! Full report to follow........

Mar 08

WTA KICK OFF 2008 NJCL CAMPAIGN with 5 'kick butt' wins! The U16 girls made light work of Haslemere with Nicola Joyce, Dani Persaud, Kelly Burge and Lauren Beech all coming through their singles matches unscathed. WTA were welcoming Lauren back to team tennis after a long period out of competitive play with an irritating back injury. It was great to see her back in action and playing some great tennis! DP and NJ led the way for WTA and won a comfortable doubles, whilst Kelly and Lauren secured the whitewash at #2 doubles...great start for the girls!

WTA's U16 boys had to fight 'tooth and nail' to overcome a mighty challenge from Reigate Tennis Club. Led by Alex Wilton, who defeated Eamon Soulsby in straight sets, WTA were backed up by 3 of it's most improved players of 2007 in Aled Loynes, Rory Barham and Oliver Reading. Close losses for both Aled and Oliver and an emphatic 'double bagel' victory for Rory meant that the match was all square after 4 singles matches. A narrow defeat in a 3rd set TB for Alex/Aled and a routine victory for Rory/Oliver meant that the tie was level at 3-3 after the doubles...........a doubles TB shootout would decide the spoils! Aled Loynes stepped up a level and his partner and 'mentor' on the day Alex Wilton, found the inner reserves needed in big moments such as these......and a 10-4 scoreline prevailed in WTA's favour. A tough and well earned win for the boys!

WTA win the prestigious Inter-County Shield for 2008!!

After winning both the U12 age groups in emphatic style 6-0, WTA were announced as CHAMPIONS of the South by finishing at the top of the league table! Go to www.intercountyshield.com to view the official results!

Feb 08

The Under 12 boys team completed a notable double for WTA by winning the Inter County Shield Final against Lensbury at Bisham Abbey on Sunday after the Under 12 girls' success the previous week-end.

After winning both the Quarter and Semi Finals convincingly 6-0 against Aldershot and Maidstone, the boys team were firing on all cylinders and this was no different in the final.

Stefan Rhodes, playing at number 1, got the side off to a winning start defeating Freddie McGeehan (who also trains at WTA) 6-3,6-4 in a tight high standard first match.This was followed by convincing wins for both Chris Reynolds at number 2 against Alistair Gray (also at WTA) and Kieran Macarty at number 3 against Alan Hutcheson and Sam East, who has had several injuries this week but patched himself up and playing at number 4, delivered the decisive rubber winning 6-1, 6-4 to seal the victory for WTA.

The boys then returned on court to play the doubles which were both won convincingly giving a final score of WTA 6 Lensbury 0.

We were then infomed that due to both the boys and the girls winning their finals by 6-0, WTA had in fact won the overall Inter County Shield Trophy for Surrrey since Herts had won 2 fewer rubbers in their 2 victories in other ager groups. This is the first time in it's 18 year history that Surrey has won this trophy !

So "Congratulations" to all the boys, including James Low and Sam Monczakowski who played in the group matches, for their hard work, their great team spirit and commitment to play for WTA (instead of Aerials and hockey tournaments !) and for their equally hard working and stressed parents for supporting the boys in all weathers and as far afield as Portsmouth and of course to Justin and all the coaching staff at WTA !

So on to the National Junior Club League next …..!

Graham Rhodes
WTA Under 12 Boys Captain

4 out of 4 WTA teams make it through as group winners in the Inter County Shield-the only team in the competition to achieve this feat!!

After several months of fierce competition against some of the toughest clubs and academies in the South of England, WTA have achieved the unique feat of winning every group and remaining unbeaten in all competition!! For a full list of results and final group standings, log on to www.intercountyshield.com .

Many thanks go to Keith Boden, Graham Rhodes, Tara Persuad and Steve Wilton for looking after their respective teams so superbly!! As the Semi Finals and Finals approach please be sure to get out and support your WTA teams!

Jan 08

U12 Boys win Inter County Shield group and qualify for quarter finals!

Dec 07

U14 Boys win two matches to get Christmas off to a flyer!

One walkover (upon arrival!!) over The Lensbury Club and a whitewash 6-0 win against Oxford Sports Club, means that the WTA U14 boys head their group in the Inter-County Shield. Captained by Steve Wilton, the boys team of David Fox, Jorge Wilton, Harry Ware and Callum Macarty turned up at The Lensbury Club on the 9th Dec ready for action, to be told that due to a couple of late injuries, the match was to be conceded in favour of WTA. Obviously disappointed, the same team took their frustration out on Oxford Sports, for the loss of only 1 set during 4 singles and 2 doubles matches, the following week. Great work boys!!

Nov 07

U12 Girls acheive outstanding victory against City of Portsmouth Tennis Academy in Inter-County Shield!

A fantastic effort by the WTA team of Nicole Shakhnazarova, Linnea Bengsston, Natalie Hadenscott and Emily Boden, saw the U12 girls ICS team knock off a very strong team from David Lloyd Southampton. The 4-2 win after 4 singles and 2 doubles, means that WTA are top of the Inter County Shield league after 2 matches. Superbly captained by Keith Boden, the girls showed tremendous courage and competitive spirit to beat some of Hampshires' finest players.

Well done girls!!

Weybridge Tennis Academy...

.....have just been announced as the official tennis provider for St.George's College! Already based on the beautiful College grounds, this official partnership will benefit both parties hugely and most importantly create further exciting opportunities to grow the St.George's Tennis Performance Programme into one of the leading Tennis Schools in the UK.

Mark Siddall will work closely with Sandy Lutz to provide the day-to-day tennis lessons, whilst Justin Sherring will continue to work with Phil Parkin on the scholarship programme. Justin Sherring, St.George's College Tennis Programme Manager, is keen to hear from all County standard players and above, who would like more information on joining this great set up.

Lucas Poelman

Tom Burn LTA Young Coach of the Year!

WTA Coach Tom Burn has just been officially named as British Tennis' Young Coach of the Year.

In order to qualify, candidates need to be U25 at the time of application....at just 22 Tom has time to win it again!

Nominated by his fellow WTA coaching team, Tom made it through to the last 8 before winning a close voting battle with 2 other extremely dedicated coaches. It is a very fair reflection of the committment, dedication and mostly enthusiasm that Tom has shown since starting his coaching career just 18 months ago. Having played on the professional circuit from 16 years old, Tom is wise beyond his years and his coaching style blends youthful exuberance with factual knowledge of what it takes to play tennis at a world class level. WTA Tennis Director and Tom's official coaching Mentor Justin Sherring was delighted to hear the news.' Tom is a hell of a guy. He has made the transition from great player to great coach in such a short period. His selection onto the GB FED CUP coaching team this year was a really great learning experience for Tom and then working everyday with the variety of players at the Academy, means that his learning curve has always been pretty steep.'

Tom will recieve his coveted award at the British Tennis Coaches Conference at Bisham Abbey later in November. His team mates will be there to cheer him on!

A WELL DESERVED AWARD TO GENUINELY GREAT GUY.....WELL DONE MATE!

Mark and Justin run Marathon

WTA Warrior Coaches Mark Siddall and Justin Sherring, took to the streets of Dublin on Monday 29th October to take part in the 28th running of the Adidas Dublin Marathon.

With a detailed 6 month training schedule prepared and meticulously adhered to, Mark Siddall tamed the 26.2 mile course in 3hrs 38mins; an amazing time for a 'first timer'. His and Justin's motivation was to raise money for The Pulmonary Hyper Tension Association, which supports family's of children who suffer from this incurable disease. Mark's beautiful daughter Isabella, 4yrs old, has had PHT since birth. Mark 'pinged' his PHT rubber bracelet when the going got tough and pushed himself to maximum as he acheived something that only 1% of the world population can be proud of completing. WTA students should be very proud and inspired by what Mark has attained. Their coach had a GOAL and set targets, he then prepared a PLAN to acheive his targets. He had to rely on SELF-MOTIVATION and SELF- DISCIPLINE and remained true to his TARGETS. Having completed his training plan Mark was able to ENJOY his run, knowing that the work had been done.....he was able to run with CONFIDENCE!

Sprinting the finish? Tough grind Thank God it's over! Feeling like a champ!

Justin on the other hand, had to manage the run with a slightly different mind-set. Having had shoulder surgery mid-way through his training schedule and therefore needing to take a 8-10 week break from any exercise, he needed to rely far more on managing SELF-DOUBT and setting REALISTIC and ACHEIVABLE GOALS. With only 65% of his training schedule completed, it would be more a case of completing the course before dusk! His finishing time of 4hrs 13mins was testament to his fighting spirit and 'will to win' the INNER BATTLE.

Both Warriors would like thank everyone for their support and encouragement, but mostly for the very kind donations that came in. At present over £2700 has been raised for the PHTA. Donations can still be made by logging on to www.justgiving/marksiddall.com

The awesome feeling is clear to see! 2 'happy bunnies' with their medals!! THANK YOU ALL.

Oct 07

WTA teams take charge of Inter

County Shield.

The U12 Boys and U14 Girls got off to great starts in their respective league openers in the 2007/8 ICS.

The boys, captained by Graham Rhodes, won a tight match with leading Oxfordshire centre White Horse. Stefan Rhodes, Sam East, Paul Monzakowski and Chris Reynolds held firm and played tough to outscore WH on sets, after the match had finished 3-3. Well done team, great work!!

The girls, captained by Tara Persuad and ably supported by Lynn Joyce, Roy Burge and Sandra Messim, overcame favourites West Hants, away from home! After the match finished 3-3 and the set scores were 7-7, a frantic counting of the games ensued.WTA sneaked the tie by 4 games, proving that in team competition...every game counts. Dani Persaud, Nicola Joyce, Kelly Burge and Sophie Messim represented WTA

Sept 07

Surrey County Championships 2007

WTA Warriors certainly came up with goods at this year’ Championships, with both access and full-time players featuring heavily in the latter stages of most events.

The major headlines go to our age group County Champions, Neville Marsh, Daniella Persuad, Adam Skalsky, Alex Knox and Jenny Whateley. Former WTA player Jasmine Asghar also became a County Champion in the U10 age group.

Daniella Persaud, who is coached by Mark Siddall, was delighted with her victory over Surbiton/Sutton JTC player Charlotte Pearce in the Girls U14 event. Her 6-3, 6-2 victory was well deserved for the hard working Daniella. ‘I am really proud of her effort since starting to coach Dani earlier this year’ said Coach Siddall. ‘She is a great asset to the WTA programme, and I look forward to helping Dani achieve more of her goals in the future’. Fantastic effort Dani!

Neville Marsh, who has recently joined WTA, stood up to tough challenges on his way to overcoming Brooks Allen in the final of the Boys U12 event, eventually winning 6-3, 2-6, 6-4. His coach Brian Love can be very pleased with Neville. WTA look forward to helping this Surrey Champion progress!

Jenny Whateley took the Girls U18 event by storm in winning the title without dropping a set. Having trained at WTA since we began in 2005, we are very proud to see Jenny win such a prestigious title. Jenny beat Elizabeth Nyenwe, from Sutton JTC in the final. Great job Jen!

Adam Skalsky, who accesses WTA from Reigate Tennis Club, certainly made his coach James Smith proud, by capturing the Boys U14 title. ‘Having been out for so much of the year with various injuries, Adam has shown what a fighter he is by achieving this great ‘year-end’ result, said Coach Smith. Huge respect Adam!

Alex Knox, had a fantastic week, winning the Boys U16 title with a thrilling 3-set victory over Theodore Voegt. Alex accesses the WTA team from his club in Woking where he works with Mark Wisdom. Well done Alex!

Other fine performances, by WTA players included: Sarah Townshend, Amelia Bengsston, Linnea Bengsston, David Fox, Adam Thornton-Brown, Eamon Soulsby and Harry Ware, who all made it the last 8 of their respective singles events!

Thank you to all players who entered and to the Tennis Surrey organisers for putting together another great tournament.

Aug 07

Laura Slater invited on to GB

Junior Federation Cup team!

Justin, Laura and Greg Rusedski at the National Championships 07

After yet another great year for the WTA based Laura Slater, the 15 year old from Camberley has been chosen by Head of Womens' Tennis Carl Maes and Head Coach of Womens' Tennis Nigel Sears to join a select group of 9 U18 girls, who are to be supported as the future of British womens' tennis!

Having reached the final of the British National Championships and the current Grand Prix Masters Champion, Laura was delighted to be selected. ' It is a great honour to be chosen for the GB Fed Cup team, especially by 2 coaches who have worked with the best players in the world ( Maes with Kim Clijsters and Sears with Daniella Hantuchova ). I will continue to work hard in my pursuit of being a top ranked professional tennis player, but I know it will be a long and tough journey'.

Her coach of 8 years, Justin Sherring, was equally proud of her acheivements.' Laura has had an outstanding year which started with her improving her world ranking to 400, continued with her winning her first National Title and after losing in 3 close sets in the Summer Nationals, selection for such a prestigious squad is quite fantastic. After playing at Junior Wimbledon,her world ranking has climbed steadily to just inside 200 and she is ready to travel the world with a great chance of success!'.

Laura will continue to see Justin on a part-time basis from September as she turns her attention to full-time training and travelling on the ITF and WTA circuits. Her new Senior Training Base will be at Bisham Abbey under the guidance of Mike Walker, Tennis Director of Win Tennis.

This is how I hit it! Fight like hell!

GOOD LUCK LAURA WE ALL KNOW YOU CAN DO IT!!!!!

The Under 12 Boys team did Weybridge tennis Academy proud by winning a closely fought encounter on Sunday away at Portsmouth by 8 sets to 6 after matches were tied at 3:3. With the previous match against Oxford also won on sets with a 3:3 match result, this now puts the team through to the Quarter-Final draw this week.

The team for the Portsmouth match had to be reshuffled at the last minute with a knee injury to Stefan Rhodes preventing him from playing singles but James Low stepped in at the last minute and showed great commitment and determination in losing a very close match at #4.Sam East was his usual dependable self, winning comfortably at #3 and Kieran Macarty, joining the team for his first match, had an outstanding win at #2, putting WTA 2:1 up.

Chris Reynolds at #1 played an energy sapping match being a set up and then after losing the second set, fighting back from 5-3 down in the final set only to lose out unluckily at 5-7.So 2:2 after the singles and game on.

With one more set gained vs Portsmouth (courtesy of Chris) in the singles, WTA needed to win one doubles in straight sets which Sam and Stefan (replacing James) duly delivered, winning 6-0,6-1 with Stefan's knee holding up well.Chris and Kieran battled back in their #1 doubles late into the evening from a set down only to lose a closely fought 3rd set championship tiebreak 8:10 !

So overall 3:3 and a win for WTA on sets, a good all round team performance and looking forward to the Quarter-Finals.Thanks to all the parents who came and supported and braved the cold !
Graham Rhodes Captain