Merchiston Castle School pupil, Jacob Fearnley, was awarded the Highland Spring Hot Shot Award at the 2013 British Tennis Awards. The winners were presented with their trophies at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals this week. Some awards recognised volunteers who give their time to tennis, while other LTA and Tennis Foundation awards were presented, including, player awards, education awards and the Aegon Coach of the Year Award. The awards were presented by LTA President, Peter Bretherton and Julie Preston, Senior Sponsorship Consultant from Aegon.
British Tennis noted that 12 year old Jacob has worked exceptionally hard within his programme to develop many aspects of his game, resulting in some great performances both at National and International level this year such as winning the 12 and Under Winter European Team Championships and the Aegon National Championships in Bournemouth. The organisation said that, both in training and competition, Jacob consistently demonstrates great attitude, professionalism, the spirit of fair play and is a great role model to other young tennis players.
This individual success follows an exceptional year for Merchiston’s Tennis Academy, which was launched in 2007. Merchiston was crowned the 2013 Scottish Schools Tennis Team Champions.
Head Coach, Marcel du Coudray is delighted, “Jacob has shown tremendous dedication and loves his tennis, both training and matches. Despite his terrific results, Jacob remains modest which is so important at all stages of a career and we are excited to see how he progresses in the coming years.”