By Ralph Barnett

ONE OF the genuine rising starlets of Scottish tennis, 11-year-old Dundee girl Alice Keddie, took another significant step forwards at the weekend when she scored a straight sets victory to win the under-12 girls’ title at the Scottish Indoor Championships in Glasgow.

Alice, a former pupil at Liff Primary School, now attends St George’s School for Girls in Edinburgh.

She divides her time between her academic studies there and perfecting her game at the Scottish Tennis Academy run jointly by St George’s and Merchiston in Edinburgh, at the Scottish National Tennis Centre in Stirling and the Craiglockhart Tennis Centre.

Next weekend Alice and some of the other leading young Scottish tennis players will be heading for Auray in Brittany where they will be meeting the cream of European opposition but yesterday she was back on home turf as she went through a demanding training session at the Next Generation Club at Ethiebeaton Park, Monifieth.

Watched by her mother June and a few interested spectators, Alice was put through her paces by Mark Walker, her regular coach, and Judy Murray.

Judy is the mother of Scottish tennis stars Andy and Jamie Murray.

Alice’s mother said, “Aswell as winning the under-12 title, she also qualified for the under-16s and made it through to the final 16—a pretty good achievement against girls who were much older, bigger and stronger than her.

“She has also been competing in the Grand Prix and Masters competitions at British level and is greatly looking forward to taking part in the international competition at Auray.

“Judy Murray watched her play at Scotstoun at the weekend and has been helping her to further develop the areas of her play that she is strong in and also progress those that need to be worked on.”

Alice’s interest in tennis started early and by the time she was eight, and was competing in and winning local club competitions, she was taken under the wing of Next Generation coach Mark Walker—one of the most highly regarded trainers in the north of Scotland.

Of her recent success, Alice said, “It wasn’t easy—it never is—but winning in straight sets is always satisfying.

“Getting to work with Andy Murray’s mother as well as Mark is really fun. She is very good with me and explains everything really well, which is helping my game.

“I’ve been to a couple of overseas tournaments before but I’m really looking forward to going across to Auray and finding out who I’ll be playing.

“My ambition in tennis is to go right to the very top—or at least as high as I can—and like a lot of others I have been inspired by Andy and Jamie Murray.

“My real inspiration and my role model in tennis is Lucie Safarova.

“She’s a leftie like me and we both enjoy the way our strokes put an opposite spin on the ball which right-handed players sometimes have difficulty coping with.

“Most of the people I come up against are right-handed so I’m used to it but there are a lot less of us and that can sometimes put opponents off and give us a little advantage.”