Parklangley sports club in Beckenham celebrates grand slam win of player believed to be its first professional
It took less than 12 hours for Chanel Borland to feel the Raducanu effect after the British player’s stunning US Open victory on Saturday night. As the seven-year-old and her mum crossed London for tennis coaching on Sunday morning, a stranger stopped them in the street. “She’s going to be next after Emma Raducanu,” they said.
It was some coincidence, because Chanel’s destination was the Parklangley sports club in Beckenham where Raducanu herself trained from age six to 11 and where as recently as June she warmed up for Wimbledon in relative anonymity. While some club members nursed tender heads after a late night in the club bar watching “our girl” create history in straight sets in New York, Chanel was being drilled in her already impressive groundstrokes by her coach Greg McNally. “Gotta be better than that,” he shouted as one forehand ballooned out of play. But more often he called “Good girl” as she rifled a double-handed backhand.
