| Fitzpatrick Wins LTA Award |
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| Monday, 10 December 2007 17:55 |
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Anna Fitzpatrick has been named as the Lawn Tennis Association’s Female Junior Player of the Year in recognition of her outstanding results in 2007. The 18-year-old from Sheffield, who captured the public’s imagination by reaching the semifinals of the Junior Wimbledon Championships in June, received more than 50% of the online votes on the LTA web site – a clear margin of more than 30 percent over fellow nominees Laura Robson, Jessica Ren and Jennifer Ren. “It’s really nice to win an award like this, especially as the public were able to vote for it on the LTA web site,” said Fitzpatrick. “It’s been a decent year for me, and reaching the Wimbledon junior semifinals was a good result and a great experience.” Fitzpatrick, a member of the Monte-Carlo Tennis Academy, made her only junior appearance of the season at the All England Club in June and impressed the nation with her victories over Melanie Oudin, Ksenia Milevskaya, Ksenia Lykina and Gail Brodsky en route to the semifinals, where she lost in two close sets to Urszula Radwanska. The current British No. 8 has spent the majority of the year breaking through on the ITF senior circuit, reaching the final of the $10,000 tournament in Sunderland as well as semifinals in Nottingham and Calgary on her way to a career-high No. 365 on the Sony Ericsson WTA rankings. Last week, Fitzpatrick qualified for the $25,000 Zubr Cup in the Czech Republic and reached the second round. She also captured the doubles title with Ana Veselinovic in Calgary in July. “I am still some way from where I want to be, but I’m lucky to have the backing and guidance of everyone at the Monte Carlo Tennis Academy and I’m going to keep working hard to try to make the transition from junior to senior success,” added Fitzpatrick. David Sammel, the Director of Coaching at the Monte-Carlo Tennis Academy, said: “Anna has just qualified and won a round in a Challenger. I know that she is making tremendous strides towards winning a Challenger and an award such as this all helps the confidence and the desire to justify people's faith in her by working extra hard on taking the next step. Our aim is for Anna to be in a position to be nominated for the senior award in 2008.” Her exploits have garnered much attention by the media, with BBC online giving her a regular column throughout the year while London Sport Magazine featured her as the cover story in its pre-Wimbledon issue. Fitzpatrick will receive the LTA award at a presentation ceremony at the National Tennis Centre in Roehampton on December 18. |
