24 November 2015 | Tennis Queensland

Kimberly Birrell (Gold Coast) capped off a stellar 2015 winning the Female Junior Athlete of the Year at the Australian Tennis Awards last night.

The award is given to a junior player that displays a positive attitude and commitment to further development. The seventeen year-old’s ranking has been boosted into the top 20 in the Australian rankings after recent wins on the Pro Tour.

Having just graduated from high school Birrell said she is excited for what 2016 will bring and really looking forward to being able to focus on tennis.

“I’m just really excited to play and travel more and hopefully have a better year than last year.”

Fellow Queenslanders recognised at the awards included Ben Mathias, coach of Newcombe Medal winner Sam Groth, for Coaching Excellence – High Performance.

Groth personally thanked Mathias when receiving the medal for making him not only better tennis player and also a better person.

“We’ve grown together and hopefully this is the start of a bigger journey to come.”

Finally Brisbane Boys’ College (BBC) won the Most Outstanding School. The award recognises the work that BBC has done incorporating tennis as part of the curriculum, introducing their Prep through to year 12 students to tennis and the strong links that have been established with their local club and coaches.

Chris Rolph, BBC Director of Tennis said, “The school’s been fantastic and a great support along with Tennis Queensland. School tennis in Queensland and Australia is on the improvement and we thank everyone for their great support.”

Introducing students to the sport from a young age has extremely beneficial with BBC winning the prestigious GPS Tennis Championships for the second consecutive year in 2015.

Click here for more information and a full list of award recipients.