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Jackie Lambert didn't have much choice but to be a tennis player.

Her parents are both coaches, her dad, David Lambert, is a former president of the country's tennis association and both her sisters play and coach as well.

"I grew up with it, I've always been around tennis.

"I have advice from all over the place — my coach, my friends, my sisters, my parents, people that have known me over the years," she said.

Not that she's complaining. The 17-year-old is playing at an academy in Florida and touring the Caribbean this summer taking part in ranking events as part of a new initiative to get Bermuda's best young players moving up in the world.

"I love tennis, I don't think I'll ever get tired of it," she says of her hectic sporting schedule.

She's currently competing in Bahamas and will go on to St. Martin, St. Lucia and Jamaica for tournaments before heading back to Florida, where she trains a minimum three-hours a day at the academy.

But the pay-off is there for all to see on the court. And it is with a sense of satisfaction that she looks at the world rankings and sees her name.

"Last year before I left Bermuda, I didn't have a ranking. Now I have come back here as one of the seeds. Its amazing," she said of her seeding in last week's ITF Bank of Bermuda tournament.

"My highest ranking is 693, but the more tournaments I play, the more chance I have of improving on that.

"I'm going to try and get some WTA (Women's Tennis Association) points and see how that goes and then go for a college scholarship."

She said playing tournaments helped with her mental toughness.

"When you play different games, you have to have a different mentality. You can play people who don't have that great a game but are mentally stronger than you are.

"That's where I have to improve. Tennis is a mental game."

She went out in the first round last week, but getting beaten is not something that gets her down, instead it pushes her to work harder.

"Tennis is a sport for competitive people. If you lose to somebody it makes you fight to get better and do whatever it takes to put it all out on the table and win the next match."

She said her coach at the academy, Bill Adams, had been a big influence, helping her with every aspect of her game.

She also believes fellow Bermudian Naim Azhar, who last week beat Bermuda's top junior David Thomas in straight sets at the ITF tournament, has improved tremendously from being at the academy.

"We hit together in practice and he has improved a lot."

Azhar, 16, will travel with Lambert and their coach to the junior tournaments across the Caribbean.

"If you play on this island and you are good on this island, you get your shot," he said.

He made it to the second round of the ITF tournament in Bermuda last week, but thinks he can go further in future tournaments.

"There are no point in going into a game if you don't think you are going to win, you may as well not turn up.

"There's some better players than me in these tournaments, if not a bunch of them.

"But if you train and you work hard and you pay your dues, I don't see why not."

Azhar started playing when he was nine, but it was only recently he started playing for real.

"The last nine months it's been serious, before that it was just a hobby to get fit. Now it's more like a job. When you go there — it's like a job. I love the game and I think I've improved because I'm more dedicated to it."

Azhar and Lambert have benefited from training at academies overseas, while young stars like Thomas have had less opportunity to compete against quality opposition.

David Lambert, one of the organizers of last week's tournament, said the idea was to bring top young players from overseas to the island to give Bermuda's juniors decent opposition.

Now the BLTA has arranged for Thomas, Caitlin Gordon, Jackie Lambert and Azhar to go and compete in similar tournaments all over the world.

Thomas and Gordon are currently in Europe playing regional tournaments in Germany and Italy while Azhar and Lambert are on the Caribbean circuit,

The money for the programme came from junior development officer Colie Place's birthday golf tournament, which raised around $10,000 to help youth tennis.[[In-content Ad]]

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