Lithgow's Lucy Green is a tennis star in the making and her dominance on the court was on full display two weekends ago.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The 11-year-old backed up for three days of tennis in a row and smashed the competition in extremely hot conditions.
On Friday February 11, the year 6 student at St Patrick’s Primary represented her school at the Polding trials in Newcastle.
Green went through the day undefeated, dropping only three games in her eight matches to place first in the trials.
On Saturday, Green travelled to Bathurst to trial for the Central West tennis team.
She went through the whole day without losing a game and will represent Central West in the NSW State Championship.
After finishing her games at 9pm on Saturday night, Green returned to Bathurst the following morning at 8am to compete in the Junior Development Series tournament.
She played six matches and did not drop a single game on her way to winning the competition.
"I had a coupe of games that went to deuce and I was like I got to get this, can't let it get off love," Green said.
In all, a pretty good weekend by anyone’s standards, but Green took it all in her stride.
"When I was playing and made it through on the first day I felt pretty good and it was hot, and then I played on Saturday and I won that so I said 'oh, I'll give it a go' and then I went on Sunday and won that," she said.
What makes Green's achievements even more remarkable is how she has only been back on the court for three months after tearing cartilage in her wrist in September 2015.
The injury was operated on in February 2016 and after a long healing process, she could finally resume playing in December.
"It feels good because when I had my operation I couldn't do anything at all and it's hard to get out on the tennis court and it was long process."
Apart from her killer backhand, Green's strongest asset is her will to win.
"Probably fighting... even if it was forty-love I could still get back, never think you're going to lose because you can always get back.
"I love just getting out there and just competing, enjoying the competition and enjoying going to tournaments and having fun and working hard and training."
Green has been playing tennis since the age of eight and her goal is to become a professional tennis player and one day represent Australia.
"My model is Sam Stosur, number one in Australia and I'd like to get to number one in the world."
She knows there is plenty of work to be done before then and that is why she trains three to four times a week.
Lucy’s mother, Tracey Green, is the head coach at Lithgow City Tennis Club and has spent many hours honing her daughter’s skills on the training court.
"It's a team effort with any tennis thing, so dad does a lot of hitting with her as well," said Mrs Green.
"My husband used to be a very good player, he was a state player and national player so both he and I used to win all the singles championships here in Lithgow when they used to have them here when we were younger."
Tracey Green also thanked Nicole Arendt who coaches Lucy for one-and-a-half hours each week.
Lucy’s 14-year-old sister and 9-year-old brother do what they can to help their sibling achieve her goals.
"Her sister works with her, she's older, Katie and Noah bribes her to go on the court with icecreams and do well," said Mrs Green.
"I'm just happy if she's happy. She just loves it and that's the first thing you've got to have, you've got to love the game," Mrs Green said.
"There's a long way to go to get to being number one in Australia or wherever. There's a lot of hard work but you have to choose to do that. It's a young age, there's a lot more work to do."