Local junior tennis hopeful Ruth Seaborne competed in the AEGON International Junior tennis tournament in Roehampton.

The tournament is the most important on the international junior calendar outside of the four Grand Slams and attracts some of the top junior tennis players in the world as they aim to hone in on their grass court games a week before Junior Wimbledon at the All England Club.

Anyone who is anyone in the world of tennis has played at this tournament and it offers all the players a real chance to pit themselves against some of the best in the world, many of whom will go on to be big names within the world of tennis.

16-year-old Ruth had to battle her way through numerous qualification rounds to make the main draw of prestigious tournament, and was then unfortunate to come up against Denmarks’s Malou Ejdesgaard who is ranked within the world’s top 100 junior girls.

Despite the ranking gap, Ruth pushed her opponent all the way, but couldn’t quite hold out for a victory after Malou sealed a very evenly fought match on two tie-breaks 7-6, 7-6 after some dominating serving when it mattered.

“It’s all good experience,” said Ruth who trains at the Sutton Tennis Academy.

“I’m disappointed not to have come away with a better result but I gave it my best shot and I’ll just get back to training and look forward to my next tournament.”

Ruth will next pair up with fellow Brit Manisha Chowdhury in the doubles event where they face an uphill struggle in the first round against a Thai-American pairing who are both top 100 junior players.