Chiswick Girl Aims To Be 'Tennis Star Of The Future'

Sienna beat hundreds of other hopefuls to win top prize

An eight-year old Chiswick girl beat hundreds of other contestants to win a tennis competition which is searching for stars of the future.

Sienna Calvert, from Chiswick Riverside and Harry Bell, age 8 from Loughborough, beat over 900 children in the final of Virgin Active’s ‘Search for a Tennis Ace’ and will have free coaching for three years, family membership of Virgin Active, and free kit and equipment.

The Search for a Tennis Ace’, is a nationwide competition to find Britain’s top young tennis talent.

Siena's mother Lisa Calvert said ; We are thrilled for Sienna as she was so excited at being chosen to represent Virgin Active Riverside in this event. All of her hard work with her fantastic coaches has clearly helped her develop into a promising tennis player and athlete."

The final, attended by 40 children aged between 5 and 8 years old, took place at Virgin Active Chiswick Riverside, on Saturday 6th June and was judged by LTA’s Head of Performance Tennis Simon Jones, The Junior Tennis Coaching Academy’s Head Coach David Felgate and Virgin Active’s National Racquets Programme Coordinator Simon Pearson.

Both Sienna Calvert and Harry Bell were put through their paces by the tough judging panel in a series of exercises that that tested their agility, hand eye co-ordination, rallying and racquet skills and all round athleticism.

As the ultimate winners, Sienna from Chiswick and Harry from Loughborough have both won three year membership to Virgin Active for themselves and their families, three years of top level coaching at Virgin Active, a kit and racquet deal with Wilson, all of which will help support Britain’s next top tennis players.

Simon Jones, Head of Performance Tennis at the Lawn Tennis Association commented: “Both Sienna and Harry demonstrated a really high skill level and excellent sportsmanship which was great to see. It was really inspiring to see so much talent in the room and I hope that the experience has inspired all the competitors to continue working hard on their tennis.”

Gary Stewart, UK Head of Racquets Virgin Active comments: “It was fantastic to see so many energetic and passionate youngsters on court today, the Active Aces tennis programme is about having fun whilst engaging with the sport and all our competitors embodied that fully today. Our mission is to attract children into the sport earlier and give them a skill for life, we think that Sienna and Harry will be great examples of this.”

Virgin Active’s ‘Search for a Tennis Ace’ competition was developed in partnership with the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA). The competition is in its second year and is part of an ongoing commitment from Virgin Active to select two children a year (one boy and one girl) for the next three years to develop and nurture. The competition is part of the health club’s wider Active Aces coaching programme which is now available in all Virgin Active Health and Racquet clubs in the UK.

June 30, 2015