A second woman from a Hove club has made it to Wimbledon for the world’s oldest tennis tournament.
Alicia Dudeney, 23, first played at the Pav and Ave (Pavilion and Avenue) Tennis Club, in The Droveway, Hove, 16 years ago.
And like fellow club member Sonay Kartal, she has soared up the rankings, climbing more than 800 places, as she prepares to make her Wimbledon debut next week.
Dudeney hopes to inspire other young British women to take the college route into professional tennis after her rapid rise earned her a Wimbledon wild card into the main draw. Former champion Serena Williams, 44, has also been given a wild card.
She has a wild card for the doubles too, partnering fellow Briton Mimi Xu, 18, alongside five other British pairs and the sport’s most formidable sisters Serena Williams and 46-year-old Venus Williams.
Dudeney, from Hove, will make her professional debut at the All England Club having risen from outside the top 1,000 in the rankings a year ago to 246.
In the 13 months since graduating from Florida University, Dudeney has won seven lower-tier titles and she will be the only first-timer of six British players given wild cards into the women’s singles.
She will also be the sole player to have delayed turning professional to go to college in America – a route that has become almost the norm for British men but less common for women.
Dudeney has no doubt that it was the right decision, telling the Press Association: “I had the best time out there. It was definitely a very valuable experience for me. The tennis out there is amazing.
“You have really high-level players now that are transitioning on to the tour but just the experience helps you grow so much as a person.
“When I finished last May I was ready to travel on my own and the daily grind of what the tour consists of, which I definitely wouldn’t have been able to do at 18, so it was an invaluable experience for me.
“I definitely think in the last few years it’s become a lot more popular. A lot of Brits now are going out there. It’s such a good route. I definitely would recommend it to anyone.”
Dudeney’s only previous Wimbledon experience was a run to the quarter-finals of the girls’ singles in 2021 while her first senior win on grass came at the WTA 125 event in Ilkley earlier this month.
But she is very familiar with the All England Club having visited as a child before supporting friends Sonay Kartal and McCartney Kessler in recent years,
American Kessler was a team-mate of Dudeney’s at college and has gone on to reach the top 30 while she grew up playing at the Pav and Ave alongside Kartal.
Roles will be reversed this year, with Kartal sidelined by a back injury, but Dudeney has taken great inspiration from the 24-year-old’s success, including a run to the fourth round at Wimbledon last year.
Dudeney said: “I’ve been at college a lot of the time but I’ve always followed everything she’s done.
“It’s so amazing. Ben (Reeves), her coach, I also grew up with as well so to see them doing so incredibly well feels so close to home for me.
“It’s especially motivating – ‘I can do that’ – but also, as a friend, it’s just really heartwarming to see her do so well because she really does deserve it so much.
“It’s every British player’s dream to play Wimbledon. It’s such a magical place. The last few years I’ve gone to watch Sonay and McCartney so I’ve watched a lot of tennis matches there over the years.
“When I was small, we’d go to Eastbourne a lot and I’d be the little kid with the big tennis ball that would run around and get everyone with a tennis bag to sign it.”
Dudeney has gained confidence from her recent success and hopes she can rise to the occasion in SW19.
She said: “When you haven’t played the bigger tournaments and you go in not knowing what it’s like, you can think the level is so much higher than it actually is.
“But then, once you actually get here and play it, you’re like, ‘Oh, these girls are really good but it’s not a crazy different level to what you’re used to’, which is great to see.”
Her first match – in the singles first round – is due to take place either next Monday (29 June) or Tuesday (30 June), with the doubles first round scheduled to start on Thursday and Friday.
