Young Shrewsbury tennis star reaches national stage
A Shrewsbury tennis player has propelled herself on to the national stage after a string of successes at county level.
Grace Turney, 11, recently won the Shropshire County Championships in the under-11 and under-12 category and is ranked number one in Shropshire for her age group at under-11 and for the year above at under-12.
In the summer, Turney, won two regional Grade 3 LTA competitions in Wirral and Edgbaston to qualify for the Grade 1 LTA tournament which saw her compete among the top 32 ranked girls in the country.
Turney, who only started her journey in tennis three years ago, narrowly lost in each of her games at the tournament in Corby but is determined to come back stronger after relishing the experience.
Her mother Rose said: She was absolutely delighted to go and have the opportunity to play against the best girls in the country.
"She loves tennis, but also enjoys football and athletics, so we try hard to fit in what we can. We were very proud that she was able to play competitively and hold her own at the national tournament, despite only training a third or a quarter of the hours of most of the girls there.
"She has shown great resilience in all the matches this year - whether she is winning or losing, her desire to do well keeps her fighting until the end.
"Grace says her best achievement this year was coming back from a set down in both the semi-final and final at Edgbaston in the summer, and receiving a special award from Tennis Shropshire.
"Looking forward, she said she's going to work on her serve and is eagerly awaiting more tournaments next year."
