SWINDON tennis star Jess Doerr will not forget her outing at the All England Club in a hurry despite missing out on lifting the trophy at the HSBC Road to Wimbledon National 14 & Under Challenge Finals.

After triumphing at the previous Regional finals, Royal Wootton Bassett Academy pupil Doerr took to the famous grass courts looking to be crowned national champion.

She put in a promising showing too but saw her adventure ended after the group stage, though the Delta Tennis Centre member did make it to the quarter-finals of the doubles, partnering Abbie Tyler.

And while unable to better British number one Andy Murray in getting her hands on a title at Wimbledon this year Doerr, 14, insists it has only fuelled her desire push on with her tennis career.

“It feels awesome to have been at Wimbledon, I lost in the final round so I got a lucky loser spot and it happened on the same day as Abbie Tyler found out she’d be coming to play here,” Doerr said.

“We’re from the same region so when we both heard, I asked her straight away if we could play doubles together.

“It’s really fun because four of us came from the South West and we’re all quite close because we go to camps together, so it’s good to be with them.

“I’d love to play here when I’m older, but if that doesn’t work out I’ll go to an American uni - that’s a good option.”

The HSBC Road to Wimbledon National 14 & Under Challenge forms part of HSBC’s investment in grassroots tennis; an area of the sport the Official Banking Partner of The Championships has been supporting since 2008 while it also supports the Wimbledon Foundation through the Ticket Resale Scheme – with the bank matching donations made by the public.

Each year more than 10,000 youngsters take part in the series of national tennis tournaments, helping to inspire the next generation of Wimbledon stars.

Former British number one Tim Henman was also in attendance for Saturday’s finals day and he admitted he had been impressed with what he had seen.

“I’ve been coming to this event for the past ten years, the enthusiasm of the kids is always the same but every year the standard gets better and better,” he said. “The ethos of the event is about grassroots, getting more and more people playing the game, but we’ve also seen some brilliant tennis.

“For them this is a great experience, this can hopefully inspire some of them to want to come here in the future.”