NOTTS' rising tennis ace Freya Christie won the Tennis Europe U14 girls' event in Helsinki, Finland – and she certainly did it the hard way.
The unseeded Hucknall youngster came through qualifying and then disposed of the top two seeds to lift the prestigious title.
In her qualifying match, Christie defeated Russian Margarita Shmeleva for the loss of only two games.
That took the 12-year-old into the first round of the main draw proper where she came up against another Russian, Aleksandra Emelianov. After winning the opening set 6-1, she lost the next 6-3 before hitting back strongly to take the deciding set without dropping a game.
That set up a match against second-seeded hometown favourite Petra Piirtola and after taking a tense first set on the tie-break, Christie swept through the second 6-0.
Russia's Natalia Belova was then beaten for the loss of only two games in the quarter-finals (6-1, 6-1), while in the semi-final Christie defeated Slovakia's Sarlota Cesnekova 6-2, 6-2.
That left the small matter of top-seeded Russian Polina Novoselova in the final.
It looked bleak for Christie when she dropped the first set 7-5 but after that there was no holding her and she stormed through to take the title as she won the next two sets 6-4, 6-4.
In the doubles, Christie reached the second round with fellow Brit Patricia Valimaa before losing to fourth seeds Martine Ditlev (Denmark) and Anke Poncelet (Belgium) 6-2, 6-4.
(reproduced courtesy of the Nottingham Evening Post)