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Fitzpatrick makes an Impact
 Britain's
Anna Fitzpatrick has jumped 88
places in the WTA rankings to reach
a new career-high position after her
exploits at Wimbledon.
The 18-year-old, who comes from
Sheffield but trains at the Monte
Carlo Tennis Academy, shot up to
No.401 after coming through a
play-off to earn a wild card into
Wimbledon qualifying, and then
winning a round.
In her final junior tournament, she
then reached the semifinals of the
Girls Singles, beating the fourth
seed and winning her third round and
quarterfinal matches within an hour
of each other.
She also reached the quarterfinals
of the doubles with Jade Curtis,
meaning that she played six matches
in two days.
Her run finally came to an end in
the semi's against Poland's Urszula
Radwanska 7-6, 6-3, but her junior
results did not contribute to her
new career-high in the WTA rankings.
Fitzpatrick will now move on to the
grass court event in Felixstowe this
week, and then to tournaments in
Canada and Russia.
MCTA Director of Coaching, David
Sammel said:
"Anna has moved the goalposts and we
are now looking for her to build
towards a top 250 ranking by the end
of the year, although the main
emphasis has always got to be
improvement of her game. If that
happens, then the ranking naturally
follows. You set the goal, know you
are capable and then forget about it
and just work hard. Anna managed
this process beautifully at
Wimbledon."
As well as impressing on the court,
Fitzpatrick has attracted a sizeable
following on the BBC Sport website
thanks to her regular diary entries
detailing her Wimbledon experiences.
She told how her three older
brothers would sit behind her chair
while she was playing and encourage
her by making reference to her
nicknames - 'Big Nuts' for her gutsy
attitude on court, 'Fat Bloke'
because of her slender physique,
and, without explanation, 'Deirdre',
'Girl' and 'It'.
During their coverage of the Men's
Singles Final at Wimbledon, the
website held an impromptu vote to
decide the most popular nickname.
They received 723 votes in an hour.
Disappointingly, 40% of the readers
went for the BBC's own choice of 'Fitzy',
with 'Big Nuts' second on 24%.
The vote brought a smile to the face
of Fitzpatrick after the
disappointment of defeat on
Saturday.
"When I got to the changing rooms
after the match it really hit me,"
she wrote in her BBC
diary
"I was gutted - really, really
upset. I realised then just how much
I had wanted to win the tournament.
"I know that people make a fuss of
British players at Wimbledon, but
now is when the hard work really
starts. I spoke to Jez Green last
night - he's the fitness trainer at
the Monte Carlo Tennis Academy - and
he said that this is the start of a
very tough, but fun and enjoyable
road. I've only just turned 18, and
this is the starting point for me. I
want to build on it.
"Seniors is much harder than
juniors, but I'm ready to do
whatever I have to do to make my
mark.
"I want to get into tournaments like
Wimbledon on my ranking as soon as I
possibly can. Wild cards are good to
a certain level, but I will only
accept a wild card if myself and my
coaches think I can genuinely
compete and beat players at that
level.
"Hopefully it won't be more than two
or three years before I can get into
Wimbledon on my ranking. If I need
wild cards in five years, my window
will have passed. I have never even
considered what I would do if I
didn't make it as a professional
tennis player. There is nothing else
in life that I really want.
"I want to be a Grand Slam champion,
that's my main goal. If I can't do
that, I would settle for reaching my
potential, whatever that is, because
then I would have no regrets."
The Monte Carlo Tennis Academy is
the world's first Touring Academy.
Based at the Monte Carlo Country
Club, it's mission is to discover,
train and manage the most promising
young tennis players in the world
and to develop them into Top 100
professional tennis players.
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