Britain’s Henry Searle is being cheered on to junior success at Wimbledon by his football-supporting mates.
The 17-year-old from Wolverhampton reached his first junior grand slam semi-final in the boys’ singles with a 7-6 (3) 6-3 victory over Brazilian eighth seed Joao Fonseca.
Searle’s loud fan club certainly made themselves heard on Court Three, and he said: “It’s great knowing I have so much support from home. I don’t think there’s many of the players here that have that sort of environment.
“They’re all avid Wolves supporters so they’re used to a good crowd. I don’t think it’s intentional, it’s just their normal reaction, but they enjoy it.”
Searle reached the quarter-finals of the French Open and has built on that here, beginning his campaign by knocking out top seed Juan Carlos Prado Angelo and going on to set up a semi-final clash with American fourth seed Cooper Williams.
“It’s definitely given me confidence playing against some of the top juniors at this level, knowing going into any match that I can play any player and giving it my best will hopefully make me come out on top,” said Searle, who trains at the Lawn Tennis Association’s national academy in Loughborough.
“It was a really cool experience being able to play on Court Three and I managed to put in a good performance against a very good opponent. It’s a dream from a young age to win at Wimbledon and to have a few wins this week is pretty amazing.”
Liam Broady and Jack Draper both reached junior finals at Wimbledon in recent years but no British boy has won the title since Stanley Matthews, son of the famous footballer, in 1962.
“That was a long time ago. I don’t really know too much about him but I’m just focusing on the match tomorrow, not thinking too far ahead,” said Searle.
Draper’s run in 2018 was much more recent, and Searle has been inspired by his fellow lefty.
“I remember watching bits of it,” he said. “I like to think he plays a little bit similar to myself. I take a few things from him and try to implement them into my game. He’s doing extremely well.”
Ranah Stoiber and Mika Stojsavljevic were both hoping to join Searle in the semi-finals but neither could progress beyond the last eight in the girls’ singles.
Fourteen-year-old Stojsavljevic has had a memorable week on her Wimbledon debut and fought back from 5-2 down in the second set to force a decider against Slovakian fifth seed Renata Jamrichova only to lose out 6-2 6-7 (6) 6-1.
Stoiber, 18, also took the opening set against Czech Nikola Bartunkova, who is in the top 350 of the women’s rankings, but fell to a 1-6 6-1 6-2 defeat.
British duo Isabelle Lacy and Hannah Klugman, meanwhile, are through to the semi-finals of the girls’ doubles.
