Court 1 awaits the name of the player with a story that will perhaps eclipse all other stories on these pages. One that might span both our old and new courts, or maybe it will start with the birth of Tennis Avenue School itself. Who will it be?

For the moment, Court 1 will hold the story of Tennis Avenue itself. When we announced ourselves as a serious tennis academy around 2006, nobody believed us because of the condition of our courts. It is true, they were truly in an appalling condition, worse than most public courts, but we were steadfast in our own belief that results come from the quality of coaching and not from the quality of facilities.

Our very dilapidated old courts always flooded when it rained

All we needed were tennis courts in any condition, players who truly loved tennis - and parents who had the vision to see beyond outward appearances. We also knew that, if we were to invest immediately in the facilities, our fees would have to increase proportionately (as we are self-funding and 100% independent of the LTA); but we wanted to remain affordable to any child with a dream.

With that we embarked on an unprecedented journey that started with us unable to attract players or parents willing to put their faith in us - and finished with us far out-performing highly funded LTA centres with state of the art facilities across the country. Indeed in the five years prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, we became arguably the most successful academy / centre in the country for developing players through the critical ages of 8-14. (“Pound for pound” there was no argument whatsoever; we were in a league of our own)

We also set up the most successful Tennis & Education program in the country (which Tennis Avenue School is the evolution of). We started with a handful of children and a clear idea of how we wanted to educate the children, but with no background in education whatsoever.

In makeshift classrooms, we produced outstanding academic results

We educated our very first batch of children from primary school through to A Levels. One is now an undergraduate at Oxford University (Mandi Furaji), and another is an analyst at Morgan Stanley having graduated from Cambridge University (Teta Thuku-Benzinge). Later Jack Pinnington Jones (future 14&U European No.1, and 18&U World No.6) would spend his formative years in the program from age 8-12 along with five other future GB No.1 players in their respective age categories.

Times Square (New York) Jan/Feb 2022: Teta Thuku-Benzinge, from Tennis Avenue to being the face of Morgan Stanley's new recruits, via Cambridge University

Our belief in our own abilites, very occasionally, stretched too far and we experienced spectacular failure as a result. This is perfectly illustrated by our attempt in 2014 to resurface the courts ourselves on the modest budget that we had - with zero expertise. For good measure, we decided it would be a good idea to install not just ordinary acrylic courts but cushioned acrylic, and this decision would prove to be fatal. We ended up losing the use two of our eight courts for the next five years. Nevertheless, we believe that three essential building blocks of achieving extraordinary things are: not limiting your beliefs, taking calculated risk, and accepting and learning from failure.

The entire academy was ready to help when our shipment of resurfacing material arrived all the way from Turkey (there are four future Tennis Europe champions and seven past and future national level champions right here - as well as Teta of Times Square fame)

Eventually we managed to raise more funds (through reserves, loans and crowd-funding) to resurface the courts, using professionals, into what they are now. Courts 2 to 8 are named after the individuals who had the biggest impast on Tennis Avenue while training on our dilapidated old courts. Looking back there are so many stories worthy of being told, of remarkable leaders and characters of stature in the making, but we only have eight courts.

Now we finally have beautiful courts - professionally resurfaced between Covid-19 lockdowns!

Our re-surfacing disaster (yes we failed and and yes we own it!)

Getting the rubber rolls (cushioning system) off the lorry from Turkey was a team effort

If we couldn't carry them, we had to find a way

We got to work laying down the rolls

Everybody had their specialist roles

We thought we had done a great job, the surface was so smooth and Lukas was delighted - until thousands of air bubbles appeared and destroyed our hopes. Did we really need cushioning at TA?!

Court 2 has not been named after an individual but a British tennis phenomenon: a group of girls who utterly dominated their age categories in British tennis, becoming LTA Team Tennis National Champions three years in a row in 2017 (12&U), 2018 (14&U) and 2019 (14&U). They were also voted the Surrey Tennis Team of the Year in each of those three years - as the only Team from Surrey to become national champions during that time.

What’s remarkable is that this group remained unbeaten for the entire three years, training on park courts and competing against all the highly funded LTA centres around the country. These girls not only dominated LTA Team Tennis but also racked up a glittering array of individual achievements.

Notably at the 12&U National Grade 2 tournament in Sutton in 2017, TA had three representatives in the draw and not one of them lost a match to a non-TA player in singles or doubles all tournament! Both singles finalists were TA players as were the doubles winners.

The Unbeatable TA Girls Team were: three former British No.1’s / national champions in Jaquelyn Ogunwale, Alexandra McDonald and Given Roach; National G2 and Tennis Europe winner Kate Mansfield; top national players Annalise Smith, Ekua Youri, Islay Thornicroft and Nina Blay; with valuable contributions from Katie Kan and Jubilee Kothari. Add in Cheyenne Joyce Borg, Minola Slavenschi and Natalya Ogunwale who were part of the 18&U team that placed 3rd nationally in 2019, and it would have been a tough task to find a stronger group of girls training together anywhere in the world.

The fact that each of these girls missed out on a court being named after them individually is the biggest possible testament to the extraordinary characters to have graced our battered old park courts and the bar of excellence (and values) they have set for future generations of TA players who will be training on the beautiful new courts.

2017 Girls 12&U Team Tennis national champions

2018 Girls 14&U Team Tennis national champions

2019 Girls 14&U Team Tennis national champions (unbeaten in three years)

Court 3 has been named after a player who first showed up at TA aged 8 and stood out immediately for his enthusiasm and sheer love of tennis: Jack Pinnington Jones (PJ to his friends). Over the course of almost five years this enthusiasm took him on an incredible journey culminating in him establishing himself as one of the very best players in Europe at 12&U.

In 2015 Jack reached the final of the highly exclusive and invitation-only Longines Future Aces, a 13&U tournament played in Paris alongside the Roland Garros French Open for the very best players in the world. Jack also reached the final of the most prestigious 12&U Tennis Europe tournament in Auray (France) as well as the final of the Lemon Bowl in Rome (Italy). In the same year he won the World Finals of the Champions Bowl in Belek (Turkey).

In achieving this success Jack demonstrated tactical and strategic genius way beyond his years - as well as a remarkable ability to recover from the jaws of defeat on many occasions. After leaving TA at 13, he went on to be ranked No.1 in Europe 14&U and voted the European Junior Player of the Year in the same year.

Fast forward to 2021 Jack started the year ranked No.6 junior in the world (18&U) and No.1 in Great Britain. In May he reached the final of a Mens event in Cairo (Egypt) to notch up his first points - and ranking - on the ATP Mens Tour. The same month, it was announced that he was signed up to Andy Murray’s 77 Sports Management company.

Jack’s story in tennis is continuing on the accelerated trajectory launched from TA, and his star is still rising as you read these words.

When we seek out new talent, we remember the enthusiasm and love of tennis that we saw in Jack from the very first day he stepped on to the grotty old courts at TA.

February 2015: Auray Tennis Europe 12&U finalist

May 2015: Longines Future Tennis Aces finalist at Roland Garros (with Carlos Alcaraz and Holger Rune both in the draw)

August 2020: attending the court opening ceremony

Court 4 has been named after Mandi Furaji. At the tender age of 8 she left her entire family behind in Tanzania in order to accept our offer of a tennis scholarship. She was amongst the very first intake into our wildly successful Tennis & Education program (which Tennis Avenue School is the logical conclusion of).

She was our very first Tennis Europe winner (12&U in Turkey) and the same year she achieved an A* in GCSE Maths. By age 14 Mandi had completed all 10 of her GCSEs, with straight A* grades - a full two years early. By age 16 when her peers were sitting for their GCSEs Mandi was passing her A Levels in Maths, Further Maths and Chemistry - again with straight A* grades.

These are unique achievements that we can’t imagine has ever been achieved by anyone before (or since), anywhere - and certainly not at the same time as achieving an ITF junior (18&U) world ranking at 15.

Mandi suffered a hip injury which required serious surgery at age 16 - from which she was sadly unable to return to competitive tennis. Her academic efforts however enabled her to gain acceptance into Oxford University. She thus emulated compatriot Teta Thuku-Benzinge, also part of our very first batch of players who was accepted into Cambridge University.

When we demand excellence from TA players both on court and in the classroom, Mandi has largely been responsible for setting that bar.

Antalya (Turkey) 2013: our breakthrough Tennis Europe winner

Florida 2015: Big Mo 14&U

Paddington 2015: Ladies Open and 18&U champion, Middlesex County Championships

Court 5 has been named after Rashard Henry, a boy who played a style of tennis (at age 10) we had never seen before nor seen since, and which utterly baffled opponents and coaches alike.

When every player around him either looked for more and more power to overcome opponents or to play an entirely risk-free game, Rashard saw tennis from a completely different perspective. He stroked the ball around softly with guile and finesse, moving opponents into entirely unfamiliar parts of the court. Once the court was opened up and the opponent was out of balance, Rashard would gracefully place the ball into space for a clean winner.

For an all-too-brief period of time Rashard had a fierce rivalry with Jack (PJ) Pinnington Jones who we named Court 3 after. 7-6 was the usual set score between them, and the loser invariably stormed off in a fit of pique with complaints of cheating or other skulduggery against the other.

Such was the effortlessness with which Rashard played his tennis and moved around the court that coaches would often get frustrated with his “lack of effort”. Even we did not recognise the true genius of his tennis nor his actual work ethic until tragedy struck. Very sadly Rashard was diagnosed with an incurable brain tumour at the untimely age of 12.

Even while his condition deteriorated, became unsteady on his feet and was seeing two balls instead of one, Rashard continued attending training and asking his coaches why he was not improving - to which they heartbreakingly had no meaningful answer to give.

Before passing away at the age of 13 he was asked what advice he would give to others. “Work hard” was his reply.

Rashard played a unique style of tennis

At OUATT in France (far left), just prior to his devastating diagnosis

Rashard's mother Donna

Court 6 is named after Kieran Macarty, who you may recognise as one of our senior coaches! He joined TA aged 12 having been one of the best players in Surrey over the previous few years, with a good number of trophies already under his belt. He stood out for having an infectious enthusiasm for tennis and always wearing a smile when on court (which he still does to this day!).

When you have already reached a highly competitive - and relatively successful - level by this age, the last thing you want to hear from a new coaching team is that you must dismantle everything you know and re-build your entire game from scratch; from technique to tactics to mindset - and that it wouldn’t be quick or easy.

This is precisely what we told Kieran and we wouldn’t have blamed him if he turned around and walked away at that point. However his maturity, desire to improve and ability to see the bigger picture meant that he wholeheartedly embraced the necessary changes.

Honing the serve that would one day help him to an ATP doubles world ranking

In the end, it took over two years of perseverance before Kieran was able to start seeing some light at the end of the tunnel. Throughout it all, he kept smiling. And contributing to TA in all kinds of other ways: helping with coaching; leading others by example; keeping order; keeping TA neat and tidy; baking cakes. Indeed Kieran was voted Greatest Contributor at TA for many consecutive years by his peers.

Kieran went on to achieve an ATP doubles world ranking in 2019 (alongside a degree in Sports Studies from the University of Stirling) before returning to TA as a full-time coach.

The unwavering faith that Kieran had in his training is precisely the quality that enables us to help players to achieve great things.

Kieran carrying Johan

Westside Junior Classic 18&U winner 2014

Court 7 has been named after Robert Morris who joined us as a low county-level boy of 14. Robert’s story is particularly remarkable for how un-remarkable his first year at TA was; frankly getting too distracted in training and having a little too much fun at the expense of quality.

At the end of his first year at TA we went on a trip to Prague, Czech Republic (a tradition that would continue annually for the next decade). One evening we asked all the children to rate each other for factors such as “effort”, “discipline”, “who wants it the most”, and so on. Robert was shocked to discover that he was ranked second from bottom by his peers - his own friends.

Prague 2009: Robert (far left) a few days before he changed his entire mindset

Literally overnight, Robert transformed himself into one of the most disciplined and hardest-working players we have ever had the privilege of teaching. He listened implicitly when we told him to forget competing for a year and focus on his technique; he stuck with our dreaded “baskets” without question or complaint. When he did resume competing he immediately went on a six-month losing streak, yet held his nerve when we urged him to be patient and have faith.

Just 18 months later, Robert became the No.5 ranked junior (18&U) in Britain with a fearsome reputation as a feisty, tenacious and confident fighter that no opponent wanted to see in their section of the draw. Robert is living proof that it is never too late to change your attitude and improve beyond all reasonable or logical expectations.

2011: runner-up at 18&U G2 in Queenswood

2012: Mens Open and 18&U champion, Surrey County Championships

When we re-located our academy to Manor Park (New Malden) from North London, one of our very first batch of recruits had his two hour round-trip from home in Milton Keynes to training, doubled - to four hours - at a stroke.

The child was a 13-year old Lukas Feddern, who initially contacted us himself (not via his parents) but far from being the model child he was in fact on report at his school and so unfit that he was unable to complete his first fitness session with us. His tennis background was minimal, essentially a beginner.

Over the next five years this remarkable young man became the Spirit of Tennis Avenue, the one who set our standards and led by example for everyone else to follow.

Gosling Sports Park 2006: Lukas (2nd left) in our nomadic first ever squad that had no home of its own

Quite simply, Lukas trained harder and with more intensity than anybody else (day in, day out) since the moment he walked through our doors - and never once lowered his standards. On two separate occasions, he went straight from a fitness session into an ambulance and to hospital for tests - having pushed himself too hard to the point of chest pain and serious breathing difficulties.

Lukas studied for his A Levels online - while commuting four hours daily to train. His discipline and work ethic got him accepted into Oxford University, after which he formed Seneca Learning; an online platform adopted by many schools that uses artificial intelligence methods to help students (over 6 million of them and counting) study and revise.

Unsurprisingly, Lukas has wasted no time in making a phenomenal success of his own life - while making a difference to others’ in the process.

110%. Always

Taking time out from Oxford University to project manage the epic disaster that was our DIY court resurfacing attempt in 2014 (see Court 1)