TENNIS chiefs barred a boy of nine from adult league matches after he won his first — with his dad blasting: “If a youngster has talent, surely we should let them play.”
Brit prospect Yannick Mendler-Jackson was selected for a weakened men’s first team and stunned the opposition by beating his 57-year-old opponent Gavin Smith in straight sets, 6-1, 6-3.
Leo Cullis, his club captain at Alderley Edge Tennis Club in Cheshire, marvelled at the prodigy’s performance away at Lymm in the National League and enthused in his report: “The truth is Yannick today proved age is just a number. Drop shots, aces . . . were all on show.”
But the Lawn Tennis Association ordered the win be scratched from the records as its rules state only players born on or before December 31, 2010, can play in the league.
Club members did not have the heart to tell Yannick, said his dad, Andrew Jackson, and the youngster was “devastated” when he found out.
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Andrew, 54, said: “What happened to the ‘if you’re old enough you’re good enough’ approach?
“We should be promoting tennis and developing youth talent, not doing our best to turn kids away.”
South African-born Andrew, married to German-born Susanna, 47, added: “Yannick has worked extremely hard on his game.
“As parents, we’re very careful not to push him and, of course, the LTA will rightly have concerns about wanting to protect kids.
"But if we have a youngster who has the talent, surely we should let them play.
“And to scrub his achievements from the records because of his age is a disgrace.”
The couple are considering moving the young talent to Germany or South Africa in a possible new blow for struggling British tennis.
The LTA said its National League competition age eligibility rules are designed to protect young players and manage their development.
