Esme’s Road to Wimbledon!

Having won the Rye LTC Play Your Way to Wimbledon tournament, organised by head coach Suzy Larkin in April, Esme Brady-Rogerson went on to compete in the Sussex County finals in mid-July in West Worthing. Having been a runner-up last year, this time she came through a winner and was invited to play in the national finals of the competition at Wimbledon. Participating in this, and competing on the Aorangi training courts at the All England LTC, was a fantastic experience – meeting the finalists from every county in the country, getting accredited to use the Aorangi player changing rooms and café, a fun behind-the-scenes tour of centre court plus doing a media interview around the competition.

Esme did herself and Sussex proud, playing in a very strong qualifying group, which included the overall competition winner, Susanna Thompson from Cheshire. Esme took strength from the tough opponents, played some brilliant tennis and had a really tight match for a place in the play-offs. It was a great opportunity to play against such strong players and all within such an exciting environment. Last year, Esme aspired to outdo her achievement of the county runner-up. At thirteen years old, her quest now is to get to do it one more time and, hopefully, go another step further.

All year Esme has trained and been supported by Joe Adams at The Green LTC, plus weekly sessions with Nick Andrews at Cross-In-Hand LTC and a squad at Seaford & Blatchington LTC, as well as being part of the Sussex 14u county squad. Lots of hard work (and miles!) and lots of fun along the way.

Esme is joining Lancing College senior school in September and was awarded a tennis scholarship to the school. Apart from all that is on offer at the college, getting to do tennis training at school at this level is an exciting prospect.