Chris Eaton – Background

Chris has dreamt of being a top professional tennis player since he started playing tennis at the age of 6.  He was initially coached at his local club, Horsley, before his training was masterminded by Justin Sherring at the Surrey LTA training centre between the ages of 12 and 16.  During that time he also worked intensively at the Sutton Tennis Academy, travelling by train from his school, Reeds, 3 afternoons a week.

In 2004, when he was 16, he left school and was invited to train full time at the LTA training centre, which was then at Queens, under the excellent guidance of Christophe Lambert.  During 2004 he travelled extensively on the ITF junior circuit and won his first international junior tournament in Adelaide.  He was sponsored in these travels by local companies Retail Answers, Callingham Crane, Squires Bridge and international law firm, Taylor Wessing.   In addition, the members of Horsley tennis club got together to raise a fund to help Chris.

Chris started playing senior tennis in 2005 and gained his 1st adult ranking points in May of that year.  In 2006, Chris played futures tournaments around the world with a win-loss count of 32-32 and ended the year with a ranking of 770.  2007 was a frustrating year with 13 weeks lost due to injury but he has a win-loss count of 31-27, collected a couple of futures doubles titles and ended the year with a singles ranking of 660.

He is now coached by James Davidson at the LTA’s National Training Centre, with expert advice from Paul Anacone and Paul Hutchins.Chris at Wimbledon 2008.