Performance tennis junior Oliver gains ITF U18 ranking
East Glos player Ollie Russell has gained an ITF U18 world ranking after a successful run at two world ranking events.
In the first event, Ollie won his first two rounds of the qualification event before losing a very close match 10-7 in a third-set tie-break to a French player, who went on to reach the quarter-finals.
Ollie was then awarded a wild card into the doubles event with one of the boys he had beaten in the qualifying event. They went on to reach the semi-finals, beating the #1 seeds along the way and the winners from the previous week.
The following week, Ollie had a good win in the first round of the qualifying event against a German player, before losing a close match 7-6, 6-3 to the #2 seed, a Chinese player who also went on to reach the quarter-finals.
Ollie then went unbeaten in the Men’s Winter County Cup competition in singles and doubles.
He then went on to Loughborough to play an ITF J100 event, and in qualifying won his first round comfortably before beating the top seed from Italy in a close match 12-10 in the third.
This has been a good reward for Ollie as he has only just recently returned to competition. Having been out for nearly a year recovering from a bilateral stress fracture in his back, Ollie has been very diligent in his rehab and shown great patience in not returning too early to tennis and ensuring he was fully recovered before resuming his training and competition.
This will hopefully set Ollie up for a successful 2026, where he can continue to progress up the junior rankings.