Top tennis coach to inspire juniors

Some of the region’s up and coming tennis stars will get lessons from the best, when world-class coach Roger Rasheed visits the Bunbury Tennis Club for a series of clinics starting this Sunday.

The 47-year-old, who was the youngest male tennis player to compete in the Australian Open and coached Lleyton Hewitt from 2003 to 2007, will be in the region from Saturday, with a focus on developing young talent in the South West.

Rasheed’s tennis career saw him play the Australian Open, Wimbledon and US Open.

He even climbed to a ranking of 192 in the world but retired due to a recurring back injury in 2006.

Rasheed will open the visit with a public talk at the Bunbury Tennis Club on Saturday, before a select group of 24 junior tennis players receive four days of specialised coaching, beginning on the Sunday.

Not only did Rasheed coach Hewitt, but he also worked with the likes of Gael Monfils, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Grigor Dimitrov.

Bunbury Tennis Club president Jeff Glossop said the club was excited to have an experienced coach such as Rasheed come to teach their juniors.

“Roger is going to teach the young tennis stars what it takes to be a top tennis player,” he said.

Glossop said the 24 chosen to participate were picked because they “had shown potential to one day develop into good players”.

Glossop said the public was invited to both Saturday’s exhibition game, which will start at 5pm and Wednesday’s sundowner, which will kick off at 6.30pm.