Enforced break gives tennis ace time to make plans

Rocky teen looking to take his game to the next level.

PLANNING AHEAD: Rockhampton’s Lachlan Vickery is looking to secure a scholarship with an American college to advance his tennis career.

TENNIS: Lachlan Vickery should be in Perth this week competing at the national secondary schools championships.

Instead he remains at home in Rockhampton, left to ponder what might have been after he was denied his Queensland debut by COVID-19.

It’s a stroke of bad luck but the 16-year-old is using the disappointment to further fuel his ambition.

Lachlan is looking to secure a scholarship at an American college in a bid to take his game to the next level.

He has his sights on either the University of Tennessee or the University of San Diego, both of which boast strong tennis programs.

As well as researching those pathways, Lachlan has been working on his game at home with dad Glenn, who is a coach and Tennis Rockhampton’s centre manager.

“We’ve got a mini net at home so dad and I hit together. I’ve also been skipping and running,” Lachlan said.

With the easing of some COVID-19 restrictions, Lachlan got to hit on a full court for the first time in months at the weekend.

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Tennis Rockhampton’s centre has re-opened for one-on-one private lessons and singles matches which are played on every second court in accordance with social distancing.

Lachlan said it felt good to be back practising on a full-sized court again.

The left-handed hot-shot had his first tennis lesson at age three and played his first tournament at five.

He is inspired by the enduring success of Swiss master Roger Federer and the brash talent of Canadian young gun Denis Shapovalov, who is a leftie like him.

Glenn said Lachlan just loved tennis, and his potential was obvious from an early age.

“Even as an 18 month old baby he would get the spatula out and hit the ball up against the wall,” he said.

“He would sit there for hours, where most kids didn’t have that concentration.”

Glenn said Lachlan had come into his own in the past two years on the circuit but really came of age last year.

“Making that Queensland team helped reinforce that this is what he wants to do.

“But I think the turning point was when he won some really tight matches on the Gold Coast in September.

“He made three finals out of four tournaments (in the September school holidays) and showed he could mix it with the guys in Brisbane.

“He’s always wanted to be a pro, that hasn’t changed, but he’s started to believe in himself a bit more now.

“He’s matured a lot and he’s got some clear direction and hopefully he can go on from here.”