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Fitzpatrick Wins LTA Award
 Anna
Fitzpatrick has been named as the
Lawn Tennis Association’s Female
Junior Player of the Year in
recognition of her outstanding
results in 2007.
The 18-year-old from Sheffield, who
captured the public’s imagination by
reaching the semifinals of the
Junior Wimbledon Championships in
June, received more than 50% of the
online votes on the LTA web site – a
clear margin of more than 30 percent
over fellow nominees Laura Robson,
Jessica Ren and Jennifer Ren.
“It’s really nice to win an award
like this, especially as the public
were able to vote for it on the LTA
web site,” said Fitzpatrick. “It’s
been a decent year for me, and
reaching the Wimbledon junior
semifinals was a good result and a
great experience.”
Fitzpatrick, a member of the
Monte-Carlo Tennis Academy, made her
only junior appearance of the season
at the All England Club in June and
impressed the nation with her
victories over Melanie Oudin, Ksenia
Milevskaya, Ksenia Lykina and Gail
Brodsky en route to the semifinals,
where she lost in two close sets to
Urszula Radwanska.
The current British No. 8 has spent
the majority of the year breaking
through on the ITF senior circuit,
reaching the final of the $10,000
tournament in Sunderland as well as
semifinals in Nottingham and Calgary
on her way to a career-high No. 365
on the Sony Ericsson WTA rankings.
Last week, Fitzpatrick qualified for
the $25,000 Zubr Cup in the Czech
Republic and reached the second
round. She also captured the doubles
title with Ana Veselinovic in
Calgary in July.
“I am still some way from where I
want to be, but I’m lucky to have
the backing and guidance of everyone
at the Monte Carlo Tennis Academy
and I’m going to keep working hard
to try to make the transition from
junior to senior success,” added
Fitzpatrick.
David Sammel, the Director of
Coaching at the Monte-Carlo Tennis
Academy, said: “Anna has just
qualified and won a round in a
Challenger. I know that she is
making tremendous strides towards
winning a Challenger and an award
such as this all helps the
confidence and the desire to justify
people's faith in her by working
extra hard on taking the next step.
Our aim is for Anna to be in a
position to be nominated for the
senior award in 2008.”
Her exploits have garnered much
attention by the media, with BBC
online giving her a regular column
throughout the year while London
Sport Magazine featured her as the
cover story in its pre-Wimbledon
issue.
Fitzpatrick will receive the LTA
award at a presentation ceremony at
the National Tennis Centre in
Roehampton on December 18.
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