\n Rowan Thornborough competed at the All England Club after earning his place through the county qualifying rounds, taking on some of the country\u2019s leading young players during a demanding week of competition.\n<\/p>\n
\n The 48-player event was split into 12 groups of four with only the top two players in each group progressing to the knockout stages.\n<\/p>\n
\n Rowan was drawn in Group L alongside Andreas of Gloucestershire, Brodie of Shropshire and Rares of Buckinghamshire.\n<\/p>\n
\n The 13-year-old made the ideal start, defeating Brodie 6-4, 6-3 in his opening match whilst playing in dry 30-degree heat. The result was particularly satisfying after Rowan had lost to the Shropshire player earlier in the year.\n<\/p>\n
\n However, the physical demands of the schedule soon became clear. After a two-hour gap, Rowan returned to the court for his second group match against Rares as temperatures continued to rise.\n<\/p>\n
\n The pair battled for more than two hours in an evenly matched contest but fatigue began to take its toll on the Cumbrian youngster following a series of long, sprint-heavy rallies.\n<\/p>\n
\n Rares eventually secured the win, leaving Andreas on two victories after the opening day, with Rowan and Rares both on one win.\n<\/p>\n
\n It meant Rowan had to defeat Andreas in his final group match to keep his hopes of reaching the knockout stage alive.\n<\/p>\n
\n The decisive match began at 12.45pm on the second day, with temperatures climbing to 32 degrees. Rowan sensibly waited in the shade before being called onto court in an effort to preserve his energy, but the conditions remained punishing.\n<\/p>\n
\n Andreas used the court well to move Rowan from side to side while Rowan continued to fight for every point. Despite producing some impressive forehand winners and repeatedly taking games to deuce, Rowan lost the opening set 6-3.\n<\/p>\n
\n He continued to take on plenty of water in an attempt to stave off fatigue but Andreas claimed the second set by the same scoreline to end Rowan\u2019s tournament.\n<\/p>\n
\n The final point brought an emotional reaction from the exhausted 13-year-old, who had given everything to stay in the contest. But, after gathering himself, Rowan crossed the court to congratulate his opponent \u2014 a moment that left his parents especially proud.\n<\/p>\n
\n While he did not progress from the group, Rowan\u2019s performances earned admiration from fellow players and spectators alike.\n<\/p>\n
\n He said: \u201cI loved the experience of Wimbledon and also trying to deal with the heat was valuable experience that I will carry with me forever.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n Rowan, who trains for up to 14 hours a week alongside additional fitness work, has already enjoyed considerable success in junior tennis.\n<\/p>\n
\n He has represented Cumbria at Under-11, Under-12 and Under-14 level and has won 11 tournaments in fewer than three years.\n<\/p>\n
\n His Wimbledon appearance marks another important step in his development \u2014 and, with the 2027 competition already a target, the Allithwaite teenager will be hoping to return to one of the sport\u2019s most famous venues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rowan Thornborough competed at the All England Club after earning his place through the county qualifying rounds, taking…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":734823,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[101,118,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-734822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/734822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=734822"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/734822\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/734823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=734822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=734822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=734822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}