The coach of Derby junior Sam Ferguson said the youngster played some of the best tennis of his fledging career as he won the AEGON Winter National Tour Finals.
Tom Rushby said the 13-year-old also showed himself to be one of the strongest players of his age group by winning the event, for which only the top 16 Brits under the age of 14 qualified.
Ferguson, of Spondon, was appearing at the tournament, at the National Tennis Centre, in Roehampton, days before flying out to Italy to represent Great Britain at the Tennis Europe Under-14 Winter Cup by Head finals.
He played four matches over three days and dropped only two sets to beat the competition's top seed and claim the title.
Rushby, who coaches Ferguson under the MyTennis programme at Loughborough University, said: "Sam did really well and he is playing as well as he ever has at the moment.
"You have to be one of the top players to qualify for the under-14 masters and to go on to win the tournament just says he's one of the best in his age group.
"He'll face some very tough matches when he competes at the winter cup in Italy but he should take a lot of confidence from this and I'm sure he'll do well.
"He's probably hitting the ball about the hardest he has done. He has become much more aggressive, his serving is better and he is taking more of his chances.
"Sam has always been good at creating them but he is now seizing them as well, which is great.
"Overall, he just seems to be a lot more confident in himself."
Players who competed at the event had accumulated points by competing in Winter National Tour grade-two events in the past 12 months.
The points are added to the leaderboard for that age group, with the top 16 then qualifying for the competition.
Ferguson, seeded number two, dropped three games in his first round win over Robert Leck, winning 6-3, 6-0 in one hour and 38 minutes.
It then took almost three hours for him to book his place in the semi-finals, beating Luke Stevenson 6-7(6), 6-3, 6-0.
This was followed by a 6-0, 6-1 victory over the fourth seed, Joe Woolley, before his 4-6, 6-0, 6-3 triumph against top seed Daniel Bennett.
Rushby, who is also from Derbyshire, added: "Playing Robert in the first round was strange for Sam because the two of them are together at Loughborough but Sam got through it very well.
"He then faced a couple of lads in the next two rounds who he has lost to and beaten a couple of times recently, so it was good he could get through those as well.
"But he was very impressive, beating the top seed to win the competition.
"He has come a long way in the past 12 months."
Ferguson will be joined by Normanton's Jay Clarke, also 13, and Marcus Walters, of Nottingham, for the three-day winter cup competition in Correggio at the end of the week.
Clarke also warmed up for the event at the national tour finals, beating Freddie McGeehan 6-0, 6-4 in the first round.
But the number three seed then lost 6-3, 6-4 in the quarter-finals against the unseeded Benjamin Wood.
Courtesy of the Derby Telegraph