A GIFTED tennis player from Bromsgrove will be playing at the same venue as her heroes after winning the county championship.

Rachael Mack, aged 14, will be representing Worcestershire at the Wimbledon National 14 and Under Challenge.

She will be playing at the same world famous venue that her heroes, Richard Gasquet and Justine Henin-Hardenne, will be competing in this week at the senior Wimbledon tournament.

The junior tournament was set up four years ago in a bid to give young British tennis hopefuls a chance to show-case their talent.

The Bromsgrove School pupil secured her place in the finals after beating off stiff competition from 20,000 hopefuls from 900 tennis clubs across the country who competed in a series of tournaments in the spring.

Now Rachael joins 64 fellow players to battle it out in the finals, to be held from Monday, August 21 to Saturday, August 28.

Sara Bussey, spokeswoman for Bromsgrove School, said: "Rachael displayed some excellent shots to get her place in the final.

"We are really proud of her and she is extremely excited at the prospect of playing at Wimbledon."

Rachael will make her way down to the London venue to begin practice on Sunday, August 20.

"The girls' and boys' draws are divided into 16 boxes of four players each," explained a Wimbledon spokesman.

"The first three days of competition are a round robin format, after which the top two players from each box go through to the knock-out competition.

"The third and fourth-placed players go into the consolation competition.

"Each player will have at least four to five matches on the grass at Wimbledon."

And Rachael will be taking part in a host of other activities organised as an added bonus for the youngsters. The players, coaches and their parents will be able to visit the brand new Wimbledon Tennis Museum and go on tours of the grounds -including behind-the-scenes areas not normally open to the public.