Gwen Klu teams up with Ellesmere College doubles partner Helena Geissler to win World Tennis Tour junior title at Loughborough

Gwen Klu, a regular in Shropshire’s county tennis teams, has added to the two World Tennis Tour junior titles she lifted in Ghana last month by partnering Helena Geissler to victory in another prestigious event.  

Gwen, who lives in Telford, teamed up with Helena, her doubles partner at Ellesmere College’s Tennis Academy, to secure victory in the doubles event at the Lexus Junior International Loughborough J60 tournament.

They enjoyed an excellent week at the event as they eventually got the better of Isabella Rebel and Anna Wright, the third seeds, 6-3, 7-6 in the final. 

Gwen and Helena were unseeded and also gained impressive wins in straight sets over the tournament’s fourth and second seeds in the quarter-finals and semi-finals respectively.

They had won through their first round match in a third-set tiebreak – and there was no stopping them after that as they produced a series of fine performances to be crowned champions of a World Tennis Tour event together for the first time.

Gwen and Helena, who is from Germany, have plenty of experience of playing alongside each other at Ellesmere College, and that served them well at Loughborough.

Gwen’s dad, William, said: “Gwen and Helena have played doubles together at Ellesmere and played their first World Tennis Tour tournament together at Liverpool last year. 

“After doing well in Ghana recently, the plan was for Gwen to compete against top ranked players, and to identify areas for improvement and continued development in her game. I can see she is on the right path.

“I’m so proud in particular of the composure and resilience she showed in the singles matches she played at Loughborough, which was so amazing, and teaming up with Helena in the doubles, going all the way to win, it was an amazing achievement for them and they are a good team. 

“The next junior tournament for Gwen will be in Liverpool next month where she will play singles and also the doubles again with Helena.

“Thank you once again to Ellesmere College for all their support.”

The Loughborough title is the latest success for Gwen this year, led by her memorable Billie Jean King Cup debut for Ghana in July – she qualifies to represent the county through her Ghanaian dad William – when she won five of her seven matches in the World Cup of tennis in Botswana.

That was followed by her first World Tennis Tour junior titles when she won both the singles and doubles at a J30 tournament in Accra, the capital of Ghana, last month. 

Gwen, a member of Telford Tennis & Padel Club, has regularly represented Tennis Shropshire’s county teams from a young age, including most recently the Shropshire women’s team in the LTA Summer County Cup.