HAVING tasted victory for the first time at this level, young Selena Blythe has her eyes firmly set on one day winning the prestigious US Open Tennis Championship.

Blythe, 15, a fourth former at Campion College, recently captured the Mayberry Investment Junior Tennis Under-18 Championship, defeating Emma Dibbs 6-3, 6-3.

“My ultimate dream would be to play in the Arthur Ashe Stadium and to win the US Open, as I have been there before and it would be great to win the Grand Slam in the state that I was born in,” revealed Blythe.

Ashe was the first African-American male tennis player to win a Grand Slam tournament. He was a humanitarian, educator and a superb athlete.

“I was ecstatic when I won the Mayberry Championship. It felt good to finally win a tournament, since I don’t play them often. Winning the tournament has helped me build confidence in my game and [has] also shown me which parts of my game need fine-tuning,” said Blythe.

Young Selena, who is the daughter of Norma and Dr Karl Blythe, the former PNP minister of water and housing, was introduced to the sport at a similar age to the game’s diva, Serena Williams, arguably the greatest female player of all time.

“I have been playing tennis since I was about four years old. I got started in tennis, because I have many relatives who play tennis and when I was younger they used to take me with them to the courts to watch and I ended up loving it,” said Blythe.

“I will never forget winning my first tournament when I was eight years old. It was in the girls 14s category and I was supposed to play my cousin, but she had to go abroad, so I ended up with another opponent who I defeated 6-4, 6-2,” she recalled.

“This win also showed me that I could compete with other girls, and not just my mother and the late Kevin Riley on the courts of the Jamaica Pegasus hotel,” Blythe added.

Selena, who will be doing nine CSEC subjects next year, hopes to attend an Ivy League university in the USA with ambitions to become a sports psychologist.

“My main priority at the moment is definitely my schoolwork. However, I have always wanted to try to become a professional tennis player,” said Blythe.

Not many Jamaicans have made it successfully onto the international tennis scene, and Blythe believes a reduction in the costs of tennis lessons might level the playing field and get more children involved.

“I think that tennis in Jamaica was never really recognised as most Jamaicans only consider football, track and field and maybe even cricket as the main sports.

“However, I do believe that it is slowly on a rise as more children are getting into the sport and are starting to really enjoy it. I would like to see tennis become a more popular sport among Jamaicans, and I would like to see the cost of tennis lessons decrease so that all children, no matter their economic background, can be able to play tennis and be good at it if they really wanted to,” she added.