TENNIS starlet Eden Richardson has started the summer season in fine style – by serving up two tournament wins.
The Whitby High School pupil, 13, started off by claiming the Notts Junior Open title in Nottingham. She then returned to the same venue a week later for the first AEGON Junior International of the season – and won that too.
“I think it is a lucky venue for me,” said Eden, of Stanney Oaks. “I’ve always got decent results there and it gives you a confidence boost to know that you are playing somewhere you have won before.”
Eden is ranked second in the UK for under 14s and has also now broken into the top-100 of the Euro Tennis standings.
She was seeded fifth for the AEGON Junior International competition – a Euro Tennis event – and knocked out the top seed, Swiss player Alessia Welti, in the quarter finals.
Eden made it all the way to the final, where she defeated second seed Olivia Tomkins, establishing herself firmly among the ranks of the UK’s top tennis prospects for the future.
Eden recently switched from the North Wales Tennis Academy in Wrexham to the Wirral Tennis Centre in Bidston, where she is now coached by Nick Lawrence.
She says she has benefited greatly from the change.
“It has been a good move,” she said. “I get a lot more one-to-one training with Nick to work on individual parts of my game and I think it has made a big difference to the way I play.
“It is tough trying to fit schoolwork around training and playing in tournaments but I am keeping up with my work and it is made easier because I am doing something I want to do.”
Eden and her new coach have big plans for this year. She has targeted a world ranking place this season and is already looking at some major tournaments.
“I am entering another international tournament in Portugal,” said Eden. “I am beginning to look at the possibility of becoming a professional tennis player and plan for that, but we have to see how things go one step at a time.”
For Eden’s mum Leslie, her daughter’s success is the result of years of hard work.
“We are so grateful to Whitby High School for being so flexible around Eden,” she said. “She is really setting some big goals for herself which will hopefully allow her to achieve her ambitions.”
