British talent Katie Swan will make her debut in the British Fed Cup this week in what will an historic moment for British tennis.
The decision to pick swan as a replacement for Johanna Konta has made Swan the youngest British player in history to participate in the Fed Cup. Top put Swan’s age into perspective, when Serena Williams won her maiden title in Paris, the Brit wasn’t born.
Swan first rose to prominence at the 2015 Australian Open girls tournament. At the event she defeated Chinese top seed Xu Shilin and Hungarian fifth seed Dalma Gálfi to reach the final. She missed out of the title after losing in straight sets to Slovakia’s Tereza Mihalíková. Since her Melbourne run, Swan has won two ITF $10,000 tournaments in Madrid and Sharm El Sheikh.
Swan’s route into tennis was an unexpected at one. At the age of seven she went on a Family holiday to Portugal. Her parents decided to book her some tennis lessons to ‘pass time’ while on holiday. It was only then that the teacher noticed something unique about Swan.
“She had a few lessons and (the teacher) used to play for Portugal, and he told us, ‘She’s going to be a professional tennis player.’ Swan’s mother Nikki told The Guardian last year.
Returning back in the UK, her parents enlisted her in lessons with Rob Hawkins, junior programme manager and head coach at the David Lloyd club. The words of her Portuguese teacher turned out to be wise as Swan recently achieved a ranking high of No.2 earlier this year in the world junior rankings.
The talent of Swan lead to her being signed by IMG Tennis, one of the biggest tennis agencies in the world. Some of their clients include Novak Djokovic, Maria Sharapova, Li Na, Kei Nishikori, Genie Bouchard, Nick Kyrgios, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Venus Williams.
IMG Tennis signs talented British up and comer Katie Swan to representation deal. Katie finished 2015 as the No.3 ITF…
Posted by IMG Tennis on Monday, February 1, 2016
The British Fed Cup is will participate in the Europe/Africa Group 1 playoff tournament in Israel. Great Britain is drawn in pool B with Georgia and South Africa. The winners of each poll will then progress to a playoff match.
