Millfield School in Street has appointed former Women's Tennis Association (WTA) professional Alexandra Walker to head up the school's growing tennis department.

Former Great Britain top 10 ranked player Alexandra joins Millfield from the Team Bath Tennis programme after an extensive career at the International High-Performance Centre which was named University of the Year in the national 2020 Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) Awards.

Team Bath Tennis is recognised as one of the most notable performance centres in the UK and has been home to current British number four Liam Broady and WTA world number 180 Samantha Murray Sharan.

Alexandra has experience on the junior circuit, winning five junior international titles, reaching the top five ranked players in Great Britain and competing at Junior Wimbledon at the age of 16.

Millfield's High-Performance Programme is led by LTA accredited coaches and provides athletic development training, individual lessons, sports science and tournament support. Recreational players can take part in a full participation summer term programme.

Millfield tennis players are frequently awarded scholarships to universities in the United States and go on to play professional tennis: notable alumni include former British number one Andrew Castle, Scott Clayton, Purav Raja and Luke Hammond.

Millfield competes in various tournaments (LTA and Tennis Europe) and fixtures against other academies, counties, clubs and universities, and runs summer camps for established junior players, aged eight to 14, which are open to the public.

Facilities at the academy include an indoor tennis centre, two grass courts and more than 20 outdoor hard courts.

Alexandra said: "This is an incredibly exciting opportunity to work within one of the most prestigious schools in the world, which has a longstanding tradition for developing some of Great Britain's top tennis players.

"As an individual I am hugely passionate about dual development and supporting athletes across all aspects of their lives, so Millfield's mission to help students achieve excellence across both their sporting and their academic endeavours is something that inherently resonates with my own values and philosophies.

"From my experiences working across all areas of tennis I have witnessed first-hand how involvement in sport can be a transformative experience for individuals.

"At Millfield, I want to make sure that every student is provided with the opportunity not only to play tennis but to learn through tennis, so that through sport we are equipping our students for life after Millfield and contributing to the development of our future leaders."