Young Simone Brown has bright future

BUDDING JAMAICAN tennis star, 13-year-old Simone Vranov Brown, is raising eyebrows in Florida where she currently resides.

The promising young player, who started playing the game when she was four years old, recently completed a one-week training and evaluation session at the world-renowned Bollettieri Tennis Academy at Bradenton, where she was coached and evaluated by the master tennis coach himself, Nick Bollettieri.

Bollettieri, who has turned out some of the world's greatest players including Andre Agassi and Russian phenomenon Maria Sharapova, has described Brown as a young player who "has a bright future and has a far way to go."

Currently trained by her father Andre Brown - who is a Grade One certified United States Lawn Tennis Association coach - Simone has won several trophies in her short career and achieved an International Tennis Federation (ITF) world ranking last summer when she advanced to the round of 16 in her first tournament on the ITF Junior Tennis Tour, which was played at the Liguanea Club, New Kingston.

Her coach, who is a graduate of Campion College and the New York Institute of Technology where he did track and field, football and tennis, has been moving Simone along rapidly and in last year's ITF Junior Tennis Tourna-ment took the bold decision to enter her in the Under-18 category, on her 13th birthday.

She won two matches to get into the main draw, and then won her first match against a 16-year-old opponent from Aruba, before being defeated by the sixth seed from Santo Domingo. She is currently ranked No. 1,352 by the ITF and when asked to comment on her accomplishment, Simone said: "I am happy for what I have done so far, but I still have a lot of work to do and a far way to go, to get to the top."

This athletic young woman who also likes to play soccer, is now poised to take her talent on to the world stage. Her strength, speed and agility were commented on by her trainers at the Bollettieri Academy, and these are the weapons her coach says will enable her to have the edge over her older competitors.

REPRESENTING JAMAICA

Her goals for the next two years include representing Jamaica internationally, and her sights are firmly set on getting to the next Olympic Games in Beijing in 2008.

"I want to be a top-ranked player by the time I am 18 and nothing would please me more than to wear the Jamaican colours at the Olympics," she said. Her goal for the next 12 months is to play a full ITF tournament schedule, gaining enough points to qualify for and play in the Junior Grand Slam events in Australia, France, the US and at Wimbledon. She is working towards being a competitive member of the WTA by her 15th birthday in July 2007.

Brown has a busy schedule over the next few months. She will compete in the Jerry Simmons American ITF Junior Circuit in Atlanta, Georgia, Lexington, South Carolina, and Boca Raton, Florida; the Eddie Herr International Championships, the Orange Bowl Championships in Florida, and the ITF Jamaica Junior Championships.

This passionate 13-year-old who takes pride in everything she does, completed her school year recently with a 4.0 GPA, was selected to the National Junior Honour Society and was awarded State Honours for her artwork in the Reflections Art Programme. At the conclusion of her tennis career, she plans to attend art school to earn a degree in cartoon animation.