Tennis ace is given a smashing start

12:22am Wednesday 23rd April 2008

A young tennis star is the second recipient of a special sports grant to help him to develop his skills in the run-up to the 2012 Olympic Games in London.

Gavin Davison, 15, was receiving £1,000 today from Bradford Council's and SportsAid's B-active sports programme.

The Bingley teenager is already making great strides in the tennis world, holding the Yorkshire under 16 and 18 titles, as well as being the North of England under 18s champion.

He also won through to a tournament at Wimbledon, reaching the quarter-finals.

Gavin is studying for his GCSEs at Hanson School, Bradford, while training between 15 to 20 hours a week at Leeds Carnegie.

He said: "My ambition is to play tennis professionally and hopefully the grant will help me achieve this goal."

The Council's assistant director for leisure services, Phil Barker, said: "Gavin is fully deserving of this funding because not only is he very talented, he is also an exceptional role model for everyone because he is incredibly committed and trains hard every week in pursuit of realising his dreams."

Editor's choice