Wolverhampton's Wimbledon hero Henry Searle reassessing strategy as focus turns to men’s game
Searle became the first British player to win the boys’ singles title at Wimbledon in 61 years.
Henry Searle’s Wimbledon exploits will force his coaching team to “go back to the drawing board”.
The 17-year-old from Wolverhampton became the first British winner of the Wimbledon boys’ singles title since Stanley Matthews, the son of the great footballer, in 1962.
Searle – who hit an incredible 134mph serve on his way to the title – now has his eyes on the men’s game.
But Morgan Phillips, the head coach at the Lawn Tennis Association’s national academy in Loughborough who has worked with Searle since September, will not make any hasty decisions.
“This makes us go back to the drawing board a little bit,” he said.
“When you say that it’s normally not in a positive way, but this is a very unusual ‘back to the drawing board’ situation because we have to reassess the plan and strategy for him going forward.
“Junior tennis is a massive platform going into the men’s game and that’s what I’ve worked in for a good amount of years now, the transition from junior to men’s and making them understand the big journey that’s ahead.
“So there will be definitely an element of him going into the lower tier of professional tennis.
“But also there’s a new system with the junior ranking. If you get top-10 then you get fast tracked into some Challenger events. That’s a big incentive for us as well.”
Searle’s 6-4 6-4 victory over fifth seed Yaroslav Demin on Court One, cheered on by ‘Henry’s Barmy Army’ consisting of his friends and family, capped a hugely impressive tournament.
He downed world junior number one Juan Carlos Prado Angelo in the first round and did not drop a set on his way to the title while barely seeming fazed by the attention or playing on the show courts.
Searle has come a long way since the start of the year, when he was not ranked highly enough for direct entry into the Australian Open junior tournament and his team took the decision to not travel for the qualifiers.
Phillips said: “He could’ve played qualies but we looked at the schedule and thought there would be more benefit in preparing him to go to South America and do a really good physical training block as well.
“We were looking bigger picture all the time with him. At the moment it’s working and we’ve got to keep working in that way.”
He then went to the French Open where he lost to eventual champion Dino Prizmic in the quarter-finals.
But Phillips saw enough to believe Searle had a good chance of a long run at Wimbledon.
“I never had a doubt about his ability, especially after the French Open,” he added.
“What we saw out there was very, very strong. The guy he lost to in the quarter-finals is going to be top-100 pretty soon in my opinion.
“So for me Henry was the second best player in that tournament. I think that gave us a lot of confidence.
“But it was getting him to peak for this tournament and we seemed to have got it right. Full credit to him.”
