Rising tennis ace aiming for top 100

Friday 03 January 2020

After moving to the south of France to train with a champion, a local tennis player has announced his bid to be one of the 100 players in his sport.

Stuart Parker (22) is currently ranked 807 in the world by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP).

As he explained on his Facebook page just before Christmas, Stuart started 2019 with no ATP ranking and no coach or solid training programme.

He achieved his ranking despite being out of the courts for four months due to an injury.

Playing on the International Tennis Federation tour this year, Stuart reached two singles semi-finals. He also won both the singles and doubles titles at the Gibraltar Island Games over the summer.

2019 also saw him relocate to the south of France to join the Tennis Academy of the International Bilingual School of Provence. Based in Aix-en-Provence, Stuart is training with Swedish champion Thomas Enqvist.

A former World Number 4 professional tennis player, Enqvist won a total of 19 singles titles in his career, including the ATP Masters Series in Paris, Stuttgart and Cincinnati.  He was also part of the Swedish Davis Cup team, which reached the finals of the Davis Cup for the fourth time in five years in 1998.

Pictured: Stuart won both the singles and doubles titles at the Gibraltar Island Games.

Under Enqvist's guidance, Stuart has announced "bigger goals" for 2020 and this includes a quest to become a top-100 tennis player. His bid is being supported by Aberdeen Standard Capital who aim to "support locally talented individuals in their pursuit of their targets and hopefully more."

“Aberdeen Standard Capital is pleased to support Jersey local, Stuart Parker, in his quest to become a top-100 tennis player," Charles Insley, Head of International at Aberdeen Standard Capital commented. 

"We will be following his progress with interest as he hopefully starts to climb the world rankings and becomes the next big thing in British tennis.”

Pictured: Stuart and Thomas Enqvist in Aix-en-Provence.

“I am excited about the future after deciding to move to France and work with Thomas Enqvist, someone who has so much first-hand experience at the top of the game," Stuart added. 

"This is a huge move for me personally and the support from Aberdeen Standard Capital helps to make this possible. I can’t wait to see what the future holds and I’m grateful for the opportunity.”