Loughborough's Katie Boulter has rounded off a successful year by being crowned runner-up at the 16 and under Orange Bowl International Tennis Championships in Florida.
The 15-year-old tennis player made the final of the event which is widely regarded as being the unofficial world junior championships and boasts past winners such as Andy Murray and world number one Caroline Wozniacki.
En route to the final, Katie who was seeded second, beat five American players but eventually fell to Erin Routliffe of Canada 6-2, 6-3.
“The Orange Bowl was a great result for me,” said Katie who trains at the National Tennis Centre in Roehampton, south west London.
“I’d hurt my knee at the Eddie Herr tournament a couple of weeks beforehand so I was really close to pulling out. Because of my injury, I wasn’t really expecting to do that well, so I just relaxed and in the end came really close to winning the whole thing. I was so pleased to do that well.
“It was definitely one of the highlights of the year for me.”
Other notable achievements in 2011 for Katie included playing at Junior Wimbledon and tackling the senior tour for the first time in her young career, as well as reaching five junior semi-finals in Malaysia, Turkey, Morocco and on home soil.
“Playing the senior events this year was a big moment for me. You realise how much work you’ve got to put in and how much you need to improve. I was delighted to reach the semi-finals of the AEGON GB Pro-Series event in Bournemouth in the summer after I came through qualifying and hopefully next year I can do even better. I just have to keep doing my best and work really hard.”
And Katie has been doing exactly that during December, having spent the last five weeks in Florida with other young British players and LTA coaches as part of an intense training block.
“The training has been broken up with the tournaments we’ve played at Eddie Herr and Orange Bowl, but we’ve had a really tough few weeks training really hard and making sure that we get fitter and stronger for the next season.
“I’ve been on court a lot doing individual drills and in the gym solidly working on upper and lower body strength and balance which has been brutal.
“We’re lucky though that we have a great team spirit amongst the girls. If one of us is feeling tired, then someone will always be there to encourage us to keep going and keep up the effort.
“It’s been a great trip but I’m looking forward to getting home for Christmas although I haven’t quite done all my Christmas shopping just yet.”
After a year of hard work, Katie has been retained on Team AEGON which means she receives the highest level of support from the LTA and reached a career high junior world ranking of 232 which she hopes to improve on in the New Year:
“In 2012 my goal will be to go out there and do my best and maybe get a senior world ranking. I still have a few years left in juniors but even still, next year I’d like to play more junior Grand Slams and I’ll be aiming to play at the French Open then do Wimbledon again.
“I’ve just got to get my Maths A-Level and a few GCSE’s out of the way in January then my year can really begin.”