A TEENAGER has become one of the top two tennis players in the county after taking up the game just over two years ago.

The extraordinary story of Sam Harrison’s success is the stuff of most boy’s dreams.

The determined 16-year-old, a former pupil at Wilmington Enterprise College, devotes six hours a day to perfecting his game, while most of his friends are off following the usual teenage pursuits.

Sam said: “I train in Holland a lot of the time and I do miss my friends and family, but I’m completely focused. I even leave my mobile phone at home so I don’t get distracted.”

Sam’s current performance is all the more remarkable because of his relatively late start in tennis.

He first picked up a racquet on one of his regular trips to the leisure centre with his dad when he was 13.

Having got tired of playing football for West Ham under 14s, he says he was looking for a new sport to get his teeth into.

“I was playing with my dad and a couple of coaches came over to watch.

“They couldn’t believe it when they heard I’d never played before and told my dad I should have lessons because they thought I had talent,” he said.

Sam enrolled for tennis lessons and has never looked back.

Shortly after discovering his natural skill on the courts, he gave up school in favour of home tutoring to fit in with his gruelling training schedule.

He splits his time between his parents in West Malling and his grandmother in Swanley – when he’s home.

He has travelled to Holland, Austria, Denmark and France for tournaments, and just before Christmas he was ranked the number two player in Kent for under 18s, despite technically still being in the under 16 age bracket.

He now has his sights firmly set on Junior Wimbledon next year and the Olympics in 2012.

“I love playing and to get into the Olympics is my ultimate goal,” said Sam.

His idol on the courts is Marcus Baghdatis, from Cyprus, but he doesn’t have to look far for sporting heroes.

“My uncle, Lee Harrison, has the European record for the under 16s 400 metres and once beat Kriss Akabusi. My other uncle, Jason Jarvis, was the British Number 1 in Motocross, and my dad represented the county in cross-country running,” he said.