Tennis prodigy Daniel Bennett hits top spot in UK rankings

Nov 4 2009 by Katy Simpson, The Journal

COULD this young tennis ace be the Andy Murray or Tim Henman of the future?

Eleven-year-old Daniel Bennett has shot to number one in the UK rankings for his age group after winning a prestigious tournament, which guarantees him a place in the Masters competition in February next year.

The top-seeded youngster from Sunderland is desperate to follow in the footsteps of Wimbledon heroes like Tim Henman and Andy Murray.

And he is one step closer to achieving his dreams after being selected to take part in an elite three-day training course at the national tennis academy at Roehampton.

Daniel is one of only eight people in the country invited to take part in the intense coaching camp, which is designed to stretch the best British youth players and develop a new generation of world-class competitors.

The Grindon Hall Christian School pupil started playing tennis when he was five, and trains at the Wearside Health and Racquets Club at Esporta in Sunderland, as well as with the Lawn Tennis Association’s high-performance centre at Jesmond, Newcastle. His gruelling weekly training programme includes three sessions at the centre, four hours of one-on-one coaching, and three fitness classes.

Daniel’s hard work paid off at the weekend when he went from being ranked fourth in the country to number one in his age group by winning an important competition in Loughborough.

Proud mum Julie, 44, a civil servant, says he is determined to become the next star of British tennis.

“It was quite a weekend,” she said. “Getting through to the Masters is like getting through to Wimbledon.

“He hopes he can go all the way. It is his life, it is all he wants to do. He is very dedicated.

“We try and encourage him to do other things too, but he spends all his evenings playing tennis.

“It’s a fine line between being pushy and making sure an 11-year-old is aware of the implications.

“But I think the school and the coaches have encouraged him to take more responsibility for his own training.”

Daniel’s love of tennis developed when he went on a week-long tennis camp during the summer holidays at the age of five.

For the past three years he has been under the expert eye of coach Nigel Beavers, who is hoping Daniel will soon be representing his country.

“He has to progress in the next couple of years to play at European level,” said Nigel.

“He hopefully he will start doing that next year. He obviously has a long way to go, but it would be nice now for him to step up and see what he can do at European level.”