MADDINGTON’S Crystal Middlewaters has moved closer to her tennis dream after winning the Australian Under-14 girls National Grasscourt championships in Adelaide this month.
The 14-year-old went into the tournament ranked number three for her age group, but easily knocked over the number one seed Annerly Poulos 6-1 6-3 to win the championship.
The former St Norbert College student is putting all her energy into tennis and has enrolled in Schools of Isolated and Distance Education to help her aims of becoming a professional player.
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READ NOWShe said her aim was to play more tournaments and get herself into the top 50 girls in the country to start playing at some of the major tournaments.
“I have worked really hard, I got into distance the education program so I can play more,” she said.
“(Going professional) is what I am working towards. I was really excited for the tournament and I prepared really well for it so it was a really good feeling to win.”
Long distance education allows her to do schoolwork from home and focus on playing tennis tournaments and training, which she does at Gosnells Tennis club.
It has paid early dividends in the form of her Under-14 Australian championship win, which also earned her enough ranking points to put her in the top 150 girls in the country and the top 15 in the state.
She will now look towards another national tournament in Canberra in the middle of the year as well as playing more tournaments at home.