Henry Searle is the first British boy to win a junior title in 61 years. Photo: Getty Images/Shaun Botterill
The fastest recorded Wimbledon player on the day of the men's singles final?
No, it wasn't Carlos Alcaraz. It wasn't even Novak Djokovic, but a 17-year-old Wolverhampton boy named Henry Searle, who detonated one bomb at 134 mph and regularly topped 190 mph on his way to becoming the new Wimbledon boys' singles champion. discharged.
the win was historic and often breathtaking as he became the first British player since Sir Stanley Matthews' son Stanley Jr. to win the boys' Wimbledon title since 1962.
Matthews sealed the victory after beating the Russian Alexandra Metreveli with a score of 7:5 in a tense decisive game. Searle also faced a challenger from Russia in Sunday's final – fifth seed Yaroslav Demin – but there was much less doubt about the outcome after a 6-4, 6-4 win in which he went undefeated.
He also went undefeated in a set, beating three of the top 10 seeds in the entire tournament, and rose from No. 25 in the ITF World Junior Rankings to No. 4.
First UK player to win the boys' singles title at Wimbledon since 1962!
Henry Searle, the 17-year-old from Wolverhampton who put his name in the textbooks stories 🙌🏆 pic.twitter.com/AqnFEjRNUC
— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) July 16, 2023 Participating in some of the senior ATP Challenger Tour events as well as next year's Wimbledon qualifiers, but important decisions also hang over how long he will stay in the junior circuit and whether he will attempt continue to combine my tennis with A-Levels in psychology and history at Loughborough Amherst School.
“The plan is to keep doing them, but how easy it will be, I don’t know,” he said. “I have struggled enough with travel this year. If tennis is going well enough, I might not have to. There is a transition to the male game that needs to be done a little faster. I hope it happens now.”
Searle's trainer, Morgan Phillips, said it would be “back to the drawing board” for the most positive reasons after a year of progress from not even played in the boys' competitions in Australia, before reaching the quarter-finals in the French championship. Open it, and now this.
Searle's hero is Rafael Nadal, and the Brit's performance at Roland Garros is also a reminder that his success was based on more than just a resounding serve. He is 6ft 4in after a surge during the Covid 19 pandemic and as such he has only recently added this phenomenal asset to his arsenal. “It took a while to get used to the longer limbs and lack of coordination,” he said.
Last UK person to win the #Wimbledon Boys crown' Singles?
Stanley Matthews, son of football legend Sir Stanley Matthews.
Henry Searle, you did it 👏 pic.twitter.com/5XsnnKOMJk
— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) July 16, 2023
Amber Fellows , his first coach at the tennis and squash club on the Wolverhampton lawn, still remembers Searle, two years old, who arrived at the club for a lesson in “tennis babies” and is already able to withstand a rally of 30 throws.
“It was wonderful – he is the best two-year-old I have ever seen,” she said. Searle describes himself as “a bit of a nightmare at home when I was younger” and says the sport became his outlet after his mom, who was a swimmer herself, introduced him to tennis and football.
The Fellows, Mom Emma and Brother Oscar were in the first courtroom on Sunday with about 30 family members and close friends of Searle, wearing white T-shirts that read “Henry's Barmy Army”.His journey is also a long-awaited example of how the British tennis system is nurturing outstanding young talent. He was brought up in Wolverhampton before appearing on county and regional teams, where he caught the attention of the Lawn Tennis Association and developed into one of the best under-12 players in the world.
Searle's coaching team is now dedicated to on strengthening his legs, and Phillips, his coach at Loughborough University's National Tennis Academy, thinks his serve could get even faster by a few miles per hour.
“He went through every step from his local club to winning Wimbledon – he's tactically very astute, but he's also agile, relaxed and free,” said Martin Weston, the LTA's national men's coach.
Searle reveled in the loud support of his friends in the stands. Photo: GETTY IMAGES/Shaun Botterill
All of these qualities were evident in front of the partisan home crowd on first court after Wolves manager Julen Lopetegui wished him luck earlier in the day.
Many of Searle's friends are Wolves season ticket holders and he has shown great maturity to use their vocal enthusiasm as additional inspiration rather than any distraction. The decisive moment came in the eighth game of the first set.
The match was still on the pitch, but Searle saved three break points thanks to a string of daring victories, including a memorable volley. He then made a series of forehands to catch his decisive serve break and then immediately broke the serve at the start of the second set.
Searl never looked like a loser after that, and with one of his supporters- The team appropriately called out “Fire the gun” before the final pitch, he took the win before sneaking – Pat Cash style – into the players' box to hug his coaches.
“It’s an amazing feeling,” he said. “I'll definitely try to enjoy the moment for the next few days and a few weeks, and then I'll come back to it and try to win some more titles.”
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