Promising young Arbroath tennis player Jonny O’Mara has turned to social media in a novel way to try to raise funds to maintain his dream of following in the footsteps of Andy Murray.
O’Mara, currently ranked 34 in Britain, has established an online pledge page, offering packages from £10 (which gets a big thank-you on his homepage) to £2,000 (which will bag a sponsor’s logo on his tracksuit for a year or a game against the 19-year-old).
He explained: “I’m currently moving training from the National Tennis Centre at Roehampton and the National Tennis Centre in Stirling, both of which have been an unbelievable influence on my career so far, to now work and play alongside the great coaching team and excellent group of players based at the High Performance Tennis Centre at Bath University.
“All up-and-coming players need not only top-class coaching but a talented group of players surrounding them who can help push each other to maximise their potential and this is available at Bath.
“Great coaching doesn’t come cheap and along with the huge costs of travelling to tournaments, accommodation, equipment, a decent diet, it all adds up very quickly. Unless you have a very wealthy background, tennis is hard to fund.
“I really appreciate the help I’ve had to date from the LTA, Tennis Scotland, sportscotland and other businesses in Scotland but I guess I’m now at the stage where a lot of players stop competing because they realise how tough it is, which is why I’m trying a different approach.
“To get to the top you have to go through the process of playing the lower ranked tournaments such as the Futures and Challengers as this is where you gain your world ranking points.
“In my first year as a professional I’ve managed to climb around a thousand places to be currently ranked 952 in singles and I know I have the ability to go far higher.”
To assist O’Mara in his quest for success visit www.pledgesports.org/projects/wimbledon-warrior/.