PLAYING tennis against women older and more experienced is no longer a problem for Hawkesdale teen ace Eloise Swarbrick.
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Swarbrick, 15, is the number three seed in the women’s silver AMT tournament at the Warrnambool Lawn Tennis Club, which starts on Wednesday.
“I have gotten a lot better at playing against women who are older than me,” she said.
“I learnt that when you come up against the older and more experienced players and they have played a lot of tennis they figure you out pretty quickly.
“It can be a little daunting, but I have worked my way up to a standard that I am able to figure them out as well so then I can think about placing my shots instead of just hitting back to them.”
She hopes that her new-found confidence against seasoned competition can help her progress further into the annual lawn tennis competition.
“I believe I can handle the pressure that comes with playing at the higher level,” she said.
“So when I play in the opens I feel like I have no pressure on me to win, like I do in the junior events.
“So I just go out there to play and try to improve my game, if I win I win, if I lose then it's not the end of the world.
“Hopefully I can go alright in this tournament and come away with a few wins.”
Swarbrick is also competing in the under 16s, where she is the top seed and favourite to take out the event.
She will balance her focus between the junior to senior levels of the tournament.
“I’ll still take the junior event pretty seriously,” she said.
“But it’s also a pretty casual event for me, as it’s my home town and court. It’s a very social event for me and everyone enjoys playing by the coast and that is also why I love playing in it.”
The 2017 Grasscourt AMT and Junior Open kicks off on Wednesday at Warrnambool Lawn Tennis Club.