Tennis player is making her mark
Natasha Marks from Winthorpe has reached one of her season’s goals by breaking into the top 1,000 of the women’s tennis rankings and she is now aiming for the very top.
The 17-year-old (pictured) put her career on hold after a bout of glandular fever this year, but she has bounced back in style and has received backing from one of the top men players on the circuit.
British Davis Cup star Jamie Murray, who won this year’s mixed doubles title at Wimbledon with Serbian Jelena Jankovic, is keen to follow Jo Durie and Jeremy Bates and form an all-British pairing at the All England Club.
Marks will become a full-time senior player next season, and she has already rubbed shoulders with Murray when she trained at Roehampton, and says that she would be delighted to team up with him on the greatest stage of all.
Murray, the brother of British number one Andy Murray, is ranked at 33 in the men’s game, and Marks knows that she has to make rapid progress in the next year in the women’s rankings.
“I’m looking to really kick on and make my mark now that I’ve got over my illness,” she said. “I would jump at the opportunity to team up with someone like Andy, as playing with him would be massive, and a definite route to the top for me.”
The former Minster School pupil took a big step back to her top form when she guided the Nottinghamshire team to Division One of the LTA Winter County Cup National for the first time by winning the Division Two title.
Marks was the county’s number one player in the competition at Hull where the format was six singles matches and three doubles against Hertfordshire, Surrey and Yorkshire.
Notts beat Hertfordshire 7-2 in the first match, with Marks only dropping two games as she won 6-2, 6-0, and the county side repeated the scoreline against Surrey, with Marks winning at a canter 6-0, 6-0.
It took the Notts side to a play-off against Yorkshire, who had also won their opening two games, and they were 4-2 up after the singles before winning the first doubles game to clinch the title.
