Fifteen-year old Kimberley Cassar (photo) has just returned from a three-week tour in the UK where she took part in three Under 18 ITF tournaments in Edinburgh, Winchester and Dublin.

In Winchester, she also competed in an Under 16 tournament where she managed to win her first two matches before losing to Hanna Toro, who eventually won the tournament.

In Edinburgh (clay) and Winchester (grass) Kim lost to eventual semi-finalists in the first round of the Under 18s, despite putting up solid performances.

In the Under 18 doubles events in Edinburgh and Winchester she went through to the quarter finals.

The daily training regime and competitive matches paid off dividends in her last week in Dublin (grass) where she reached the semi-finals for both singles and doubles events. In both semi-finals she lost in very close three-set matches but her performance on court attracted the praise of many officials and coaches who were watching the matches.

This feat was all the more commendable given that it was her first time playing on grass.

These very good results enabled Kim to improve her Under 18 world ranking considerably from just under 900 to 691.

Her next tournaments will be in Libya in August, Cyprus and Switzerland in September and Dubai in October.