With Wimbledon getting into full swing and the nation gripped by Henmania one group of girls are already basking in the glory of tennis success.

The U17 girls' team at Temple Fortune Tennis Club are preparing to represent Middlesex after scooping the county's Premier Division following one of the most closely-contested National Junior Club Leagues for years.

Needing to win their final two matches, Temple Fortune beat Westway, on the deciding doubles, and Riverside Chiswick, in a dramatic tie-break shoot-out.

The girls now go forward to play in a south-east championship against the likes of Surrey, Sussex and Kent.

All aged 16 and under, the team of Nancy Cowley, Ellie Davies, Chantele Duarte, Chloe Foster, Nadia Hammoud, Sasha Myers, and Rachael Thomas have represented Middlesex at various age groups with number one seed Cowley, 16, ranked among the county's top three players.

She said: "We really came together as a team and it is so pleasing to have won the league. The next round of the competition will be tough but it will also be quite fun at the same time."

Nancy, who lives in Tufnell Park, would have entered this year's Wimbledon competition but for the qualifiers clashing with one of her GCSE exams. Fellow team member Rachael Thomas, 16, recently jetted off to America to spend two weeks at the Nick Bolleteri Tennis Academy in Florida.

Marc Lewis, who coaches the girls, was delighted with the progress they have made this year. And he is confident that he will have some of his protegees at Wimbledon next year.

He said: "They all play to a very high county level and four of the seven girls have played at regional and national level.

"I've got such a good crop of youngsters that I will definitely have three or four competing at Wimbledon next season."

June 25, 2002 15:30