SHE made her international debut four months ago and now promising Derbyshire junior Victoria Allen has been selected to represent Great Britain at a top European tournament.
The 12-year-old, of Ashbourne, said she “felt quite confident” about her appearance in Turkey next month, where she will compete in the Tennis Europe Nations Challenge by HEAD.
Victoria – who made her overseas debut as part of a GB under-12 squad competing at a Four Nations event, in Belgium, in February – said: “Every time I go abroad, I feel a bit more confidence about competing and being on my own. I think I’m doing quite well at the moment and I’m having quite a lot of experiences, which all helps me to learn. It’s going to be tough in Turkey because we are playing the home team but also Russia and Croatia, who have some good players.”
“I have some idea about the Turkish players who might compete – I’ve hit with one Turkish girl who was really nice and is their number one. There was also another girl who I played against and we had a close match. I don’t know if they’ll be picked to play, so we’ll have to see. But I feel quite confident about going – I just need to keep doing what I’m doing, work hard and not get arrogant or cocky about anything.”
During her debut, Victoria impressed by winning five of her six singles matches and set an event record for the amount of sets won. The trip meant she missed out on collecting the girls’ player of the year title at this year’s Derbyshire Tennis awards. But, since then, the youngster – who trains at the MyTennis Academy, in Loughborough – has travelled to Croatia twice, once for a training camp and the other time for a tournament. She has also competed in France, alongside participating regularly in tournaments across the UK.
Victoria said: “The camp was really exciting – I’d been to the tournament in Croatia a few weeks before that and it was all exactly in the same place. It meant I knew where I was going, what I was doing and how everything worked, which gave me lots of confidence. I learnt a lot out there and I really enjoyed it.”
Teams from Georgia, Hungary, Latvia and Poland will also join Allen and the Great Britain team in the Zone D qualifying event in Ankara, Turkey’s capital city. There will be two round-robin sections, comprising four teams. The top two squads from each then compete in play-offs – with two progressing to the finals of the Nations Challenge in August.
The competition is run by Tennis Europe – the largest regional association of the sport’s governing body, the International Tennis Federation.
Other countries competing are: Zone A – Belarus, Bulgaria, Estonia, France, Italy, Moldova, Serbia and Ukraine; Zone B – Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Czech Republic, Israel, Portugal, Slovak Republic, Slovenia and Sweden; Zone C – Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Netherlands, Romania, Spain and Switzerland.
Victoria’s mother, Anne, said: “It was not a shock for Victoria to be selected for the event but it was a nice surprise. She’s really lucky at the moment because she’s got these wonderful opportunities and, most importantly, she’s really enjoying herself. It also shows her efforts are going a long way and she’s on the right track to what she wants to do at the moment. But we’re always reminding her to enjoy the present, take advantage of these opportunities and to keep herself grounded.”
With thanks to the Derby Telegraph