Golesworthy has a brush with stardom (From Basingstoke Gazette)

Golesworthy has a brush with stardom

8:00am Wednesday 19th October 2011 in Tennis

ODIHAM tennis star Ryan Golesworthy got the chance to meet world number 55 Marcos Baghdatis at Roehampton.

Baghdatis was there training and took time out to meet nine-year-old Golesworthy and a number of player who were there as part of the second National Talent Identification Day at the National Tennis Centre.

Golesworthy, a pupil of Mayhill Junior School in Odiham, was invited to attend the day, which consisted of physical and controlled tennis tests designed to look at a player’s technique, footwork, ball striking, matchplay and attitude on court.

The tennis tests include cross court rallying (looking for quality shots), the rally test (where a coach feeds the ball from side to side), a serving drill and a chance to put all those skills together in a matchplay session.

It had been an amazing summer, with Golesworthy’s latest victory coming in the Eastleigh Open , beating Dorset’s Luca McManus 7-4, 7-3 in the final.

As well as winning at Eastleigh, he also won tournaments at North Oxford, Winchester, Gosling, Chesham Bois and Windsor.

During the summer the Lawn Tennis Association run National and Regional Leaderboards.

On the National Leaderboard, Golesworthy was in the top three, after winning at Solihull and coming second at the Bournemouth Open.

The regional leaderboard consisted of 515 players. He had the maximum six tournament wins, making him one of five boys who ended up in joint first place.