Keothavong meets junior national champions
Anne presents trophies at Roehampton…
British No.1 Anne Keothavong took time out from her rehab following knee surgery to present the trophies to the 18&under winners at the AEGON British Junior National Championships at the National Tennis Centre (NTC) in Roehampton on Friday.
The Londoner was a winner of these championships a decade ago as a 15-year-old and admits it provided a real springboard to her later success.
Her rise up the rankings may have been temporarily halted by her recent left knee injury, which saw her tear both the anterior cruciate ligament and the meniscus just a fortnight ago, but she remains positive about returning to the tour in early 2010.
“I underwent surgery on Tuesday and it all went according to plan – so far so good,” said Keothavong. “I start my rehab now and time will tell as to when I can get back to playing competitively again. I hope to be back by February, which is ambitious, but achievable.
“My rehab will consist of physiotherapy, working on getting my strength back and improving the range of movement, which takes a while. The rehab process is quite time consuming – there is a lot of work to do in order for me to be back competing within six months.
“At the moment I am waiting for everything to settle down before I start to work really hard at the excellent facilities at the NTC with the sports science team there. They’re already doing a great job of helping me – I’ve got a great support team here who I am really grateful to.”
Keothavong was on hand to watch James Marsalek and Jocelyn Rae secure the 18&U AEGON British Junior National Championships.
She added: “It was a great achievement to win the nationals as a junior and it did give me confidence to pursue tennis – that ultimately led to me taking up the game professionally. It gave me confidence knowing that I was one of the best juniors in the country and that I had realised the potential I had shown from a young age.
“Being British number one does carry a certain level of responsibility towards the juniors coming through. I try and help the younger players out here at the NTC where and when I can.
“We mix with each other quite a bit and I often see what else is going on to see how I can help out. Some of them look up to me and see me as a good example, so I go about my tennis in a professional way to be a good role model to them and to be someone they can look up to.”
The AEGON British Junior National Championships is the highest domestic accolade available to Britain ’s most promising young players and other previous winners include Andy Murray and Tim Henman.
More than 400 of the best boys and girls in the country have competed across qualifying and main draws for the National Championships at both the NTC and West Hants Club in Bournemouth . The event has been running for 101 years.