Hello ! My name is Michael Bakay.

I am a 13 year old junior tennis player from Blanchardstown, Dublin 15. I am Ireland’s number one junior tennis player in under 13. I had a successful year winning couple of tournaments in Ireland ( Glasnevin Open and Naas Open ), and reaching the later stages of many other tournaments throughout Ireland.

At the beginning of August I got to the semi final of a Tennis Europe tournament in Dublin, which I consider my biggest achievement to date.

I started tennis at the age of 9 in my local gym , I only played twice a week as at that time i was doing Taekwoondo and was an Irish number one in my age group, and was travelling around Ireland a lot winning all possible competitions.

We then moved and my mom suggested to try tennis lessons in my local club in Dunboyne.  I’m now a member of Castleknock tennis club and thats where my tennis career really started.

At the age of 10 I got very interested in the sport and made a huge progress within a year, by 11 I was invited to be a member of National Tennis Academy where i trained for the next 1.5 years. In August I was selected to represent Leinster in the prestigious event Iterpros in Belfast, Nothern Ireland .

I love tennis and my motto is ‘Find fuel in every failure’, I never give up.

My goal is to be a professional tennis player and represent Ireland in Davis Cup when i am older , and in the near future to qualify for Junior Grand Slams.

My current ranking in Tennis Europe is 604 as I didn’t travel much, so for next year I need to go to at least 10 tournaments in Europe to get the experience of playing international tournaments.

This campaign with Pledge Sport is my only hope to receive funding for those trips . All the contributions make a huge difference and gives me a hope for this year. I appreciate every help i can get to make this dream come true !!!