Hi, my name is Peter Bothwell – thanks for checking out my campaign page.  I’m an 18 year-old tennis professional from Hillsborough Co. Down, Northern Ireland.

I started my professional journey at the beginning of 2014 after many years of dedication and determination to this point and have been pleased with what I have achieved at this early stage of my career

• I have in July become the first ever man from NI to have an ATP world ranking.
• ATP singles ranking 2082 and doubles ranking 1350.

Five years ago I was in the final of the under 14 boys singles and doubles at the Irish National Junior Championships and in July 2014 I made the final of the men’s doubles at the Irish Open, a 15K Futures tournament, one of my opponents in the final being the 2012 Wimbledon doubles champion ‘Freddy Nielson’………… In another five years’ time where will I be?

I’m currently the youngest of five Irish men playing professionally with world singles rankings and the sole Northern Irish person. This has come after years of competing in junior tennis where at International ITF level I reached a singles final and both won and lost in doubles finals and where in Ireland I have won several National titles. In 2013 I represented Ireland at U’18 in the Tri Nations.

It all started at age 6 at Downshire, my local tennis club, coached by my mum Louise Tuff and my granddad Sammy Tuff. I was selected for the Irish National Tennis Academy in Dublin where I lived and trained before returning to train in Northern Ireland and in Malahide Co. Dublin. I now train at Soto Tennis Academy  in Sotogrande, Cadiz, Spain where for two years I’ve been developing my all round game on the red clay courts which are so hard to come by back home in Ireland and in the UK. A typical training day for me consists of:

7.45-8.30   – mobility and stability work / warm up

8.30-10.30 – individualised on court training

2.00 -4.00  – tactical / match play work on court

5.00- 6.30  – strength and conditioning (gym work, cardio, speed/agility)

6.30-7.30   – injury prevention work / cool down

 

To put my future pathway and goals in context the average age of a top 100 player is 28. Travelling alone at the age of 18 on the men’s professional circuit is both physically and mentally demanding but the greatest challenge I face is to fund competing at the 25 International tournaments that I need to play annually as the average cost of travel, accommodation and food is £850 per tournament. I’ve spent overnights in airports, where possible I stay with tennis friends to cut costs and my parents have made considerable sacrifices to financially support my training and some tournaments. I rely heavily on their support and am very grateful for what they have done to date.

Despite all this, it won’t be enough to allow me to progress to the next level and I now need financial support for a full tournament programme. This is where you come in!

In 2015 I need to compete in 25 tournaments in order to get to the next level and to achieve a year end singles ranking of 1000 and a doubles ranking of 700.

Longer term my goal is to improve my ranking sufficiently to play Grand Slams where a ranking of around 200 is needed. Despite only being 18, I was on a shortlist from which the 2014 Davis Cup team was selected and I hope to be the first Northern Irish person in over 30 years to be selected in 2015.

My hard work, determination and belief won’t run out but without your help, unfortunately the money will! Any contribution would make a massive difference and be very much appreciated.

Thank you for your support.

‘Control the controllables’

@Peterb95 #PBRising