Young tennis players at Queens Park Tennis Club are getting plenty of precious experience of competitive tennis this year.

Juniors coach Jimmy Smith has successfully set up a circuit of home and away fixtures with other clubs across the city.

Jimmy tells us: “The Junior team was victorious against Preston Park Lawn Tennis Club last week. A mixture of singles and doubles matches were played from the eight player team.

Queens Park tennis club offer many opportunities for juniors to compete on a weekly basis. We run regular singles box leagues, internal tournaments and team matches. Upcoming fixtures will be played against Sussex LTC, Pavilion & Avenue, Redhill LTC, Hollingbury Park and Preston Park.

Thomas, Daniel and Ollie, three of our strongest players, are already representing Queens in the Parks League. And Lucca, 10, got to the final of a Grade 4 LTA competition at St Ann’s last month.

They love playing as a team, they all know each other well, and it’s a good learning situation for all of them. Some will progress on to the social tennis soon. Thanks to all the parents (and grandparents) who’ve helped us make this possible.”

Jimmy submits all the junior results, including internal boxes leagues, to the LTA, which gives QPTC a strong rating as a development club.

“This is still relatively new for us. We only played our first fixtures last summer. It’s going well, but we’d love to have more girls taking part. Hopefully, that will be the next stage of our development.”

Well done the junior squad: Noah, Tom, Tom D, Sonny, Daniel, Leo, Gabriel, Billy and Lucca, plus Henry, Konstantinos, Rafe, Sebastian and Oliver.

Local player Pasha, 13,  from Ukraine, (below) now plays for the Sussex county team, and regularly competes in LTA competitions across the county, winning his first Grade 3 singles title this summer.