An aspiring young Dunblane tennis ace is hoping to follow in some famous footsteps as she takes her next steps on the professional circuit.
Ali Collins is hoping to emulate Jamie Murray by claiming Grand Slam glory in doubles and hopes that would help motivate more young girls into the sport.
The 21-year-old, who is currently ranked as Scotland’s women’s No 2, is passionate about inspiring the next generation of female tennis players and continuing to equalise opportunities for them in the game.
The former junior Grand Slam player not only comes from the same town as the Murray family, but is also currently being trained by Jamie’s coach, as she continues to become one of the UK’s biggest tennis prospects, behind recently crowned US Open queen Emma Raducanu.
Ali has played at Wimbledon and the Australian Open and frequently competes on the International Tennis Federation Women’s World Tennis Tour, where she recently was a doubles finalist at the $25,000 event in Kiev, Ukraine.
She has recently teamed up with the experienced Venezuelan player Andrea Gamiz for the next season and has an eye on further developing her skills and claiming major titles.
As she enters the doubles circuit, she will be combining the packed tennis schedule whilst also studying Business and Enterprise In Sport (MA: Hons) at Edinburgh Napier University.
Speaking to the Stirling Observer this week about her beginnings in the sport, Ali says she first started to play the game at the age of five.
“At the time, tennis was a bigger sport for females. I was watching that a bit more. Football has obviously grown a lot in recent years, but at that time tennis was bigger. I enjoyed tennis a lot more and I ended up sticking with that.”
The former Dunblane Primary and Beaconhurst School pupil was always destined to be a sportswoman, also excelling in hockey, martial arts, football and golf. But it was tennis that really peaked her interest and at the age of 15 she faced the daunting prospect of moving away from home and family life to train and further develop her talents in the sunnier climes of Florida after securing a scholarship.
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She said: “It was a difficult time. At first I loved it. I hadn’t really been exposed to a lot or travel at that stage of my life.
“I was very fresh to it and I went out there and was really homesick so I struggled a bit. In hindsight, it was a really big move for a 15-year-old to do on her own.
“Looking back now, I can’t believe it. It was a pretty big move to go and be a full-time player but at the time, if you wanted to be professional, it was kind of normal to go and commit at a young age.
“At the time, there was never enough girls, especially in Scotland. It was always the done thing, most of the girls that I grew up looking up to also moved to the likes of America or Spain.”
She has spent the last year training in Spain and cites the Murray brothers as her inspirations as well as fellow tennis stars Maia Lumsden, Anna Brogan, Alice Keddie and Anna Devine.
On combining her professional career with her studies, Ali says it throws up some unique challenges. She’s now in her final year and said: “A few years ago, I took some time away from the sport and in that period I decided that, if I was coming back to tennis full-time that I actually wanted a distraction.
“It was in the period I spoke to Tom, who runs the course at Napier, and he said it would be ideal. It (the course) is designed for elite athletes and it’s very flexible with deadlines and things like that.
“For me it has been, at times, stressful but also massive and it’s really helped me when I’ve been away from home. The homesickness has always been an issue for me so having that distraction away from the court when you’re a bit lonely and there’s loads of time then you have something to focus on.”
Reflecting on the recent US Open victory by Emma Raducanu, Ali hopes that the success of young British women players can help attract more young girls into the sport. Ali is a part of the Kyniska Advocacy – a group dedicated to advocating for progressive policies in women’s sport and is currently an ambassador for the group and she strives to be a role model for young girls and act as a ‘big sister’ for younger players.
She added: “It’s massive. Having more female role models is going to be huge for inspiring little girls to get in to tennis. I feel like, especially from Scotland, there’s only a couple of us who play professionally on the female side so I feel I almost have that responsibility to inspire and to be that sister almost to the younger girls who are going to go through that same journey.
“That’s one of the main reasons I switched to playing doubles, I wanted to impact as many girls as I could and I wanted to make a difference and to do that and showcase that you need to be on a platform and you need to be playing the big events.”
