By JON HARVEY

Tunbridge Wells tennis starlet Barnaby Hodgkins came face to face with current British number one Andy Murray after a training session at the LTA National Tennis Centre in Roehampton.

Thirteen-year-old Barnaby, who attends Sevenoaks School, has been to the NTC for a training and assessment session with his, Kings Hill based, coach Argentinean Rafael Muzlera and LTA coach and South East regional performance director Colin Beecher.
He finished last year as Kent’s top under 12 and has made an impressive start at the under 14s level winning two Ariel County tournaments during this winter.

Rafael who has played and coached at an international level linked up with Barnaby, who is on an 11:2 winning streak, in October and believes his new charge has the potential to do great things.

“I have coached many performance juniors all around the world but Barnaby has something special,” he said.

“He has much hard work to do but from what I have seen, he has the drive, commitment and determination to succeed. Barnaby has made massive progress since we have been working together and I think his parents are really committed to helping him achieve his dream.”

Although neither Rafa nor Barnaby had the nerve to throw down the gauntlet to challenge Murray to a match there and then both were thinking the same thing.
Barnaby still has a long road to travel to be a professional tennis player but, in eight years time when Murray is the ripe old age of 29 and Barnaby is 21 it might just happen.