In April 2018, with help from JHMT, I went and played my first ever International Tennis Federation (ITF) tournament in Gran Canaria. It was a great experience, and although I got knocked out in the first round of qualifying by a Spanish girl, I really enjoyed the challenge and seeing different, foreign players. It was also my first time playing on real clay, which is a court surface that is quite rare in this country, but very popular in Spain and other European countries.

After changing my coach, I then played another ITF in June 2018 in Belfast. This time I won both my qualifying matches and got into the main draw, however I played the number one seed, a girl from the USA, in the first round. It was a good match and she was quite experienced so it gave me some useful learning points even though I lost.

I played my third ITF this year in Edinburgh during July. The weather was unusually good for Scotland, which made for great playing conditions. I won both my qualifying matches again, and faced a French girl in the first round of the main draw. I lost to her but played well and once again had learning points to improve. I also played the doubles event at Edinburgh with a Scottish girl, however we lost first round to the eventual semi-finalists.

I have really enjoyed all the ITFs events I have played this year, and am grateful to JHMT for helping me to be able to play them. I plan to play more ITFs in the future, but in the meantime I am training hard and playing tournaments in this country.