Teenage Canterbury wheelchair tennis player Ellen Tribley makes big strides, winning the girls’ tournament at the Wheelchair Tennis National Finals in Shrewsbury

It hasn’t taken teenager Ellen Tribley long to make massive strides within the junior wheelchair tennis world.

Ellen, from Canterbury, was diagnosed with cerebral palsy at birth and only started playing just before the pandemic.

But she won the girls’ tournament at the Wheelchair Tennis National Finals at Shrewsbury in December and reached the Semi-Final at last month’s International Tennis Federation Tournament in Bolton, as well as being victorious in the doubles with a Dutch player.

“She started just before lockdown,” explained mum Lucy.

“She hadn’t picked up a racket before, as far as I know, and hadn’t been self-propelling in a chair.

“We visited Winchester Science Centre on holiday a couple of years in a row because the twins (Ellen and her sister Rose) loved it. They had a little track and a basketball wheelchair that you could self-propel around the track in.

“Then, there was a basketball ring and, with the ball, you had to time yourself going up the track and scoring a basket in the wheelchair. Well, Ellen got into it - and then wouldn’t get out of it!

“There were queues of kids waiting and I was thinking ‘Ellen, get out now. Somebody else has got to have a go’ but she really loved that feeling of speed, movement and being able to turn.

“Suddenly, she was much more fluent in everything that she was doing. So, she nagged me to find her some wheelchair sport locally.

“I struggled at first. I found a basketball club, but the problem with that was with her catching - she was poor and the basketball just hit her in the face.

“Then, we found this tennis club that runs at Polo Farm once a month on the last weekend of the month.

“When she went along, they put her in a tennis chair. She picked up a racket for the first