Coach David Kirby (second from right) with Totally Tennis players (from left) Eliot Rowberry, Luke Miles and Matthew Church

PERFORMANCE coach David Kirby is taking Totally Tennis players on a trip to Spain in April to give them experience of playing abroad.

The selected players will be training on clay courts at TenisVal's Centro de Tennis Altur and Alvarino Academy, run by respected coaches Pancho Alvarino and Jose Altur.

The trip to Valencia is for players from the Queen Mary's College team who train at Totally Tennis, as well as players from the club itself, Peter Symonds College, in Win-chester and Alton College.

Lewis Pentlow, George Corden, Luke Miles, Eliot Rowberry, Matthew Church, James Kirk, Hywel Evans, Josh Murray and Harry Stow will accompany Kirby and assistant coach Jamie Jordan.

The trip will include a visit to Tennis Val-encia to spend a day at the ATP Valencia Open that takes place from April 14 to April 18. Spain's Nicolas Almagro will be defend-ing the titles he won both in 2006 and 2007.

The Altur and Alvarino academy, which is a high-performance tennis centre, is the train-ing base for players such as Marat Safin, David Ferrer and Anabel Medina.

Another who trains at the club is ATP player Igor Andreev, who won the Valencia Open in 2005 after beating Rafael Nadal in the quarter-finals - becoming only the second player to beat Nadal on clay.

The Russian, who is currently ranked 33 on the ATP tour, has been coached by former ATP professional Altur since 1998.

The Hampshire players will have clay court training at the academy and experience play-ing at one of the best performance clubs in Europe.

The trip is part of the successful links that Totally Tennis have forged with clubs and players in other countries, giving players opportunities to train, play and compete abroad.

This venture will be followed by Totally Tennis' first PPI (Prince Plugged In) Chal-lenge trip to Sant'agnese Tennis Club, in Rome, in early May.

Kirby and James McIntosh will then take a group of players on the annual German exchange trip to Euskirchen, also in May.

Kirby said of the forthcoming trip: "The trip to Valencia is an incredible opportunity for these players to experience some clay court training at a high-performance facility where top players train, as well as getting a taste of tennis in another country.

"I am really looking forward to taking them to the Valencia Open, which always attracts great players on the ATP tour and will be a fantastic display of high-quality tennis."

5:23pm Wednesday 13th February 2008

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