WILMSLOW’S young racketeer, Ava Johnston, put up a fine performance to earn fourth place in the National Junior Tennis Finals.
Johnston, aged 10, put in a number of consistent outings to come through her group before being knocked out by eventual runner-up Ashwini Foster.
The Sunday Telegraph-sponsored competition, held at Sherwood Forest Center Parcs last month, saw the best young court stars battle it out in a tournament of high quality.
After a number of consistent performances, Johnston qualified as second seed from thousands of competitors.
Competing in the Girls 10 and Under category, she successfully came through her group with a comfortable 6-3 6-3 victory over Emily Arbthnott and a 6-2 6-2 defeat to eventual finalist Foster.
The semi-finals saw Johnston go head-to-head with number one seed and dominant force in the age category, Freya Christie.
However Christie, who produced high-quality tennis from beginning to end, was too strong for the Wilmslow competitor, eventually winning the match 6-2, 6-2.
Johnston could not reproduce her earlier form from the group stages in her third place play-off against Polly Harlow, going down 6-4 6-2.
The road to the final of the National Junior Tennis Grand Prix is a gruelling one, taking in a schedule of 74 tournaments at different venues throughout Great Britain.
Players can enter as many tournaments as they choose and are awarded performance related points depending on their final position in each event. These ‘order of merit’ points are then cumulated for each player to create a leaderboard.
With a number of solid performances throughout the circuit, Johnston scored a highly commendable 560 points.
Coached by Brian McFadden, she can take numerous positives from the tournament and the form she displayed throughout, showed promising signs for the future.
The youngster can now add her fourth place achievement to other career honours, including representing Cheshire at County Cup Under-10s in 2006 and 2007, as well as playing an international tournament in Croatia.
