Hi, my name is Evan Hoyt. I’m a 19 year old professional tennis player from Llanelli, Wales.

Where did it all start?… It began when I was just 4 years old. I started taking tennis lessons at my local Llanelli Tennis and Squash Club; where my parents are now heavily involved. I became instantly attached and my passion sky rocketed from there.  When I was not down at the tennis club, I was in the street hitting against a wall or taking on my dad over a net in the back alley behind our home.  I quickly progressed and I soon found myself training with some of the best Welsh players at the Swansea Development Squad.  As a family, in the summers we began traveling to Junior British events, where we would always camp whilst  I competed in the week long events.  It was great fun! Then at age 12, I was awarded a scholarship at the Reed’s School Tennis Academy; situated at a private boarding school on the outskirts of London.  I had a great time at Reed’s where I studied and developed my game from the age of 12 until graduating from the 6th form in 2013.

My junior career was pretty successful, and I am pleased with what I was able to achieve;

• Represented Wales in numerous Four Nations events
• Welsh Number 1 for my age group
• Won Junior Davis Cup with GB team Captained by Greg Rusedski in 2011
• Reached Doubles Semi Finals in Junior Wimbledon 2012 with Wayne Montgomery
• Reached a Junior World Ranking of 53 2013

From the summer 2013, in my first year of full-time tennis, I had the opportunity to train at National Tennis Centre in Roehampton with Tennis Coach James Trotman and Physical Coach Steve Kotze. I made a successful start to my professional career;

• Becoming the Youngest of 3 Welsh Tennis Professionals

• Winning doubles pro titles in Israel and Qatar

• I achieved an ATP singles ranking of 1245 and doubles ranking 687.

In 2014, I’ve had to recover from a stress fracture in my lower back, which I picked up in January. Having spent 8 months out of the game I’m finally back competing once more, and I’m ready to take the circuit by storm.

I now train at Nottingham Tennis Academy where I have chosen to developing my game with the help of Davis Cup Captain- Leon Smith, Mark Hilton and Leighton Alfred. A typical training day for me consists of:

9.00-10.00 – Mobility / warm up / Injury Prevention

10.00-12.00 – On court training/ drilling

2.00 -4.00 – Match play work on court

4.00-5.00 – strength and conditioning (gym work, cardio, speed/agility)

5.00-5.30 – Cool down

Why do I need your help?… I recently spoke to Tim Henman and was told that in his first year out of juniors, he played over 220 matches (singles and doubles) in a calendar year. By sheer volume of matches, he gained a better understanding of what worked and didn’t work for him, and ultimately learned how to win. Therefore, taking his advice, in order to progress to the next level, I’d need to play 30-35 tournaments in 2015.

The problem comes financially; with travel, accommodation and food coming to roughly £800 per tournament. Where possible I stay with friends to cut costs and my parents have made considerable sacrifices to financially support my training and tournaments. While I have been well supported by British Tennis in past years, changes have affected many players. I’m now relying heavily on my families support and am very grateful for what they have done.

Despite this, I now need financial support to fund a full tournament programme in order to take the next step towards my long term goals of playing on the ATP Tour. A ranking of Top 100 is needed to do so.

I’ll keep working hard, believing and showing determination, but without your help, achieving my dreams won’t be possible. Any contribution would make a huge difference and would be very much appreciated.

Thanks for your support,

Evan Hoyt

Twitter- @hoytevan

Website- evanhoyt.co.uk