TOTALLY Tennis players Matthew Church, 12, and Claire Andrews, 14, won the first stage of the Road To Wimbledon Challenge held last week at Totally Tennis.
Church won two matches to reach the final where he overcame fellow squad player Luke Miles 4-6, 6-2, 10-7 in a hard-fought three setter.
Andrews won all her matches to meet Vicky Lopez in the final.
Both players will now represent Totally Tennis in the county finals of the event, to be held in Southsea in July.
The winner of that stage will then qualify to represent Hampshire on the grass courts at Wimbledon in August.
Church and Andrews followed in the footsteps of Sammie Moreton, the Gazette-sponsored Totally Tennis player who reached the national final held on the famous SW19 courts last year.
The Road To Wimbledon Challenge is a Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) initiative aimed at encouraging young people to play tennis.
The added incentive is to follow in the footsteps of tennis greats by having the opportunity to play on the grass at Wimbledon.
More than 10,000 juniors from 600 tennis clubs throughout the country entered the first stage of the competition.
From that starting field, 48 boys and 48 girls will compete at the final stage in both singles and doubles.
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