Mimi Xu was named Player of the Year at the glittering ceremony in Cardiff, while Francesca picked up the gong for Performance Coach of the Year.
Mimi, who first began playing at Swansea Tennis and Squash Club, battled back from injury at the start of 2023 to play in the Junior French Open, Junior Wimbledon, the Junior US Open and, most recently, the Junior Australian Open, where she reached the quarter finals of the girls’ singles, and the semi-finals of the girls’ doubles. Other highlights for Mimi included lifting the silverware at the under-18s ITF J300 in Beijing and representing GB in the girls’ under-16s Tennis Europe European Summer Cup competition. Her success has seen her rise to 13th in the ITF Junior World rankings.
Francesca, a former Wales number 1, is Head Coach at Tennis Wales Regional Player Development Centre at Swansea Tennis Centre where she, and the team, work with Wales’ top players aged 10-14 years, to develop them to international standards. Among the players to come through the centre are Mimi Xu, and Niall Pickerd-Barua who, in the last two years, was crowned under-12 and then under-14 GB champion. Francesca’s win follows her success in the same category at the 2021 Tennis Wales Awards, and National LTA Awards, and being named UK Coaching Development Coach of the Year in 2018. She will again be put forward for consideration for the UK-wide LTA Awards taking place later in the year.
