Adults and children from across the county were lucky enough to enjoy a coaching session with former World Number One tennis player, Mats Wilander on Sunday, July 7th.

The Swedish athlete spent the day at Ross Tennis Centre where he coached the youngsters and trained a team of adults who won the opportunity to play with Mats in a raffle.

Ross Tennis Centre Head Coach, Steve Barnett, visited five primary schools in the local area to deliver tennis tasters sessions to over 600 children, where he chose some of the pupils to train with Mats. Most of the pupils were from in and around Ross-on-Wye, coming from St Joesphs Primary School, Lea Primary School, Much Birch Primary School and Gorsley Primary School.

More excited students also came from Kingstone High School, John Kyrle High School and Whitchurch Primary School.

Other lucky children were selected from Ross Tennis Centre’s junior coaching programme as a reward for their efforts during training from April.

The club also invited some children from both Herefordshire and Worcestershire county tennis and Gloucestershire county tennis teams, with some players training with Tennis Hereford at The Hereford Squash Tennis and Racketball Centre.

Steve told the Ross Gazette: “With almost six months planning, our vision is to inspire children to play more tennis and Mats to provide an insight into the world of tennis and opportunities tennis provides. The event was fantastic and great to see so much enthusiasm from the kids taking part."See the full story and more pictures in this week’s edition of the Ross Gazette, or subscribe to our online edition here