Fitzpatrick on double time to keep flag flying

"Big Nuts" did it again yesterday as Anna Fitzpatrick, the 18-year-old from Sheffield, became the first British girl to reach any junior Grand Slam semi-final in six years.

One of the athletically built teenager's ironic nicknames is "Fat Bloke"; there's more fat on a matchstick. Another is "Big Nuts", for her ballsy attitude on court, and on a day of astonishing stamina and style, she played and won the two matches necessary to make it through to the last four here. She was also scheduled to play junior doubles last night.

Not since Anne Keothavong and Elena Baltacha both made it to the junior semis at the All England Club in 2001 (both lost) has Britain seen a girl go so far in a junior Slam.

"I didn't realise this morning that I was going to have to play two matches," Fitzpatrick said. Her first, a third-round tie against the No 13 seed, Ksenia Lykina, started around 1pm, and she left the court at 2.34pm after a 6-2, 0-6, 10-8 win.

She returned to court at 3.40pm for her quarter-final against Gail Brodsky of America, and an hour and 40 minutes later had sealed it 6-2, 7-5 with some powerful serving, superb movement, delicate drop shots and a series of cracking winners down the line.

Fitzpatrick left the LTA's programme last summer when the governing body closed down the Leeds LTA academy. Her coach, Dave Sammel, then founded the Monte Carlo Tennis Academy in Monte Carlo, since when Fitzpatrick has come on in leaps and bounds. The LTA still partially fund Fitzpatrick, and she would be well within her rights to ask for a little more assistance with this set of results.

"It's very, very expensive to produce a tennis player," Sammel said. "But when you get a player with top-100 potential it's worth investing." The MCTA is largely funded by an Australian sports fan and benefactor, Vin Hillsdon, who made a fortune in precious metals and now looks to be backing a gem in Fitzpatrick.

When asked if she hoped that the LTA might up their funding for her, Fitzpatrick said it "would be nice". A press conference moderator then interjected: "As a board member of the LTA, I can tell you the LTA is very happy to fund success. Anna is a success and a great result is exactly what we're looking for in funding the stars of tomorrow."

Fitzpatrick is an engaging character now ranked No 489 on the senior singles circuit. She routinely tells herself the score in a match is two games worse than it is, in order to summon the fighting spirit. Her three older brothers are constantly inventing nicknames, "Fat Bloke" and "Big Nuts" included. "I get called everything," she said. "My oldest brother calls me "Girl" or "It". I get called "Deirdre" or "Gertrude" or "Trudy". They're all just completely random."

British hopes in the boys' singles ended when Graham Dyce and Marcus Willis lost their third-round matches. Dyce was beaten by Ricardas Berankis, 7-6, 6-2, while Willis lost to Gastao Elias, 7-6, 7-6.

Jamie Murray enjoyed mixed success in more ways than one. He and his men's doubles partner, Eric Butorac, were eliminated from that event. But later in the day, Murray and Jelena Jankovic won their third-round mixed doubles match against Julian Knowle of Austria and Tian Tian Sun of China, 6-3, 7-6.

That put them in the quarter-finals and kept them on course for a possible semi-final meeting with Britain's surprise package of the event, Alex Bogdanovic and Mel South, who were waiting to play their own quarter-final yesterday evening.

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