Hucknall tennis ace Freya Christie ready for international tour tests

Christie, 24, went down against hotly-rated Sonay Kartal, 20, in Sunday’s showpiece as the country’s top professionals descended on the Shrewsbury Club for Finals Week.Christie, the world No.628, beat Eden Silva to navigate her way to the final but was unable to edge past the precocious Kartal – losing 6-0, 6-1 – and clinch the domestic crown.The Nottinghamshire star wants to take valuable confidence from her exploits and says her promising form in Shropshire can lay the foundations for more success.Christie said: “I think I’ve got to take a lot of positives from this week.

“Credit to Sonay – she missed about one ball the whole match, so well played. I’ll have to take that one on the chin.“But it’s been a great week for me. I always love playing in Shrewsbury and appreciate the crowd support. I really appreciate everyone who came out today.“I’m hoping to do one or two more tournaments, hopefully some 25k events, but that just depends on scheduling. This might be the last tournament of the year for me.”

Nine individual qualifying weeks culminated in the eagerly-anticipated UK Pro League Finals Week, where the country's top professionals descended on the salubrious Shrewsbury club to duel it out for the men's and women's trophies.Christie qualified for Finals Week in fifth position after racking up 54 points across six weeks of action.

She swatted aside Katie Stresnakova in the quarter-finals before breezing past Silva, 25, in similar straight sets fashion.

But Kartal’s youthful promise and aggressive forehand proved too hot to handle in Sunday’s final as the young star from Brighton cruised over the line.

With a prize fund of around £500k and Broadcast live on BT Sport, FreeSports, The Tennis Channel and UKproleague.tv, the UK Pro League is the only place where the British player group come together to compete across the full year.