Shrewsbury tennis star heads to Portugal fresh from Sainsbury's School Games glory

The 17-year-old trains regularly here at The Shrewsbury Club under the watchful eye of coach Nigel Hunter, the club's director of tennis.

Josh beat aside all comers from England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland to storm to gold medal glory in Manchester in the boys' singles competition.

He also collected a bronze medal for his exploits in the doubles alongside Ben Jones, another youngster who trains at The Shrewsbury Club, to complete a productive few days.

The Shrewsbury Club's success at the prestigious event did not end there as Ben Jonson-Rolfe, who also regularly trains at the venue as part of the club's thriving wheelchair tennis group, claimed silver in the doubles competition.

Josh, who made his international debut for Great Britain in the World Team Cup in Turkey earlier this year, edged out his GB team mate, Scottish player Ruairi Logan, in a thrilling singles final which went the distance.

Coach Hunter was delighted to see Josh hold his nerve to come out on top in an exciting clash which was streamed live on line.

"Josh is having a storming season and to win the wheelchair tennis event at the Sainsbury's School Games was a brilliant effort," he said. "Youngsters from all over the UK, around 1,600 of them, competed in different sports and it was great to have wheelchair tennis included for the first time.

"Josh ran out a worthy winner over the three days and the final against Ruairi Logan was an unbelievable match.

"Josh squandered six set points in the first set and eventually lost that one. He played a tremendous second set and stormed to a 4-0 win to take it into a tie break.

"He was up 5-1 and 6-2 in the tie break but then found himself 9-7 down and saved two match points in the third set champions tie break and eventually came out an 11-9 winner so it was a great achievement."

Josh is now reaching for his passport once more to fly to Portugal this week to take part in his first ITF Futures adult tournament in Lisbon

"The future's looking bright," added coach Nigel, who is accompanying him to Portugal. "He's moving onwards and upwards and improving his tennis all the time."