A teenage tennis prodigy has said a fond farewell to her mentors at Bolton Arena Community Sports Village as she moves on the Lawn Tennis Association’s National Academy at Loughborough, rounding off her time locally as a national champion.
April Sackflame, from Salford, who only turned 13 four months ago, is ranked GB number one in her age group and has been one of the leading talents at the LTA’s Regional Player Development Centre at the arena for the past three years.
She is one of only four players to be chosen for the national academy this year and is a year younger than the regular age to be accepted.
April, who made her debut at Junior Wimbledon this summer as one of its youngest competitors, marked the end of her Bolton tenure as National Under-14 Champion following the LTA’s Lexus Junior National Championships – a tremendous achievement as she was once again almost a year younger than most competitors.
She won five matches to claim the title and made the final without dropping a set before beating the number one seed, and a top five player in Europe, 5-7, 6-2, 7-6(5) in the final. She also made the doubles final but came up short 6-4, 6-4.
April says: “Winning the nationals was such a special achievement and a reward for all the hard work I’ve put in with my coaching team over the past 12 months.
“Without the support of Bolton Arena and the coaching team, none of this would have been possible. I’m really excited to be starting at the LTA Academy, but Bolton Arena will always feel like home. I look forward to competing and seeing everyone at Bolton Arena again soon.”
The win was the culmination of a five-days-a-week training programme that included one-to-one development sessions, squad training, strength and conditioning work, nutrition advice and sports science – all done with Head Coach Elliot Chang and other members of the RPDC coaching team.
Elliot says: “It was the perfect way for April to end the season and her tennis journey at Bolton Arena – winning the U14s singles title and finishing runner-up in doubles with her partner, Adaugo Nwogu, at the British Nationals in Nottingham.
“What makes this achievement even more impressive is that April was competing against girls a year older than herself. This is a strong message for all the young players in our academy. We wish April all the best in her tennis journey and look forward to seeing her back at Bolton in the near future.”
April’s tennis journey began when her dad, Sultan, a business analyst who grew up in Nigeria, spotted a social post by a friend about playing tennis with his daughter at the Northern Lawn Tennis Club in Manchester. He thought it ‘looked cool’ so he decided to take April, then aged five, along for a try.
“She liked it, but she wasn’t very good,” says Sultan. “So, we came home and practised in the park for 12 months until she was good enough to go back.
“It was then she started to show how good she could be. People saw her energy, and commented about how physical, fast and strong she was. I didn’t really know what the tennis journey looked like, so things just happened, and we were like, wow!”
April secured her Wimbledon debut after finishing runner-up in her first grass court competition at the Tennis Europe Category 1 Tournament played at Raynes Park, which is used as a training venue for Wimbledon and the pre-championship Queen’s Tournament.
Players in groups of four played each other with each group winner progressing to the semi-finals. Eight of the competitors, like April, qualified on merit due to their achievements, while the other eight were chosen based on their world rankings, which saw April finished down the field in 11th place.
