Wimbledon 2018: Katie Swan on gaining experience, grand slams - and talking Love Island with Andy Murray

The rising star of British tennis will be the youngest Briton in the main draw of either singles event at Wimbledon next week

Andy Murray is playing an important role in the development of Katie Swan, but when it comes to giving the 19-year-old Bristolian some tennis advice there is clearly a time and a place for it.

“We had a team dinner in Eastbourne last week,” Swan said on Thursday in a break from her final preparations for Wimbledon. “Andy’s always helping me with little things, but we didn’t talk about tennis so much this time. We talked more about the World Cup and Love Island. We’re all watching Love Island. Even if Andy says he doesn’t watch it, I can tell you he does.”

Swan, who will be the youngest Briton in the main draw of either singles event at Wimbledon next week, is one of the first tennis players to have signed up with 77 Sports Management, the company Murray set up with two business partners.

She joined at the start of this year, when she tweeted a picture of her first meeting with Murray 10 years earlier. “It was when the best kids from all the David Lloyd Centres around the country came together to play a tournament at Raynes Park,” she said.

“Andy came to present the awards and he hit with the kids a bit. That was surreal for me at the time. It was the first time I had ever met him. It’s so weird to think now that I’ve signed with him.”

The current world No 207 said that the prospect of having Murray as a mentor was a big factor in her decision to join 77’s stable. “Andy was always my idol when I was growing up,” she said.

One of Murray’s first jobs was to help Swan find a new coach. The Scot helped put her in touch with Diego Veronelli, who used to coach Heather Watson. The Argentinian now shares coaching duties with Julien Picot, who has been with Swan for more than three years.

The partnership is already starting to pay dividends, Swan having climbed 92 places in the world rankings since the start of the year. She won an International Tennis Federation title in Spain last month and has played well in the British grass-court season, losing only to higher-ranked opponents. She is much happier with her form now than she was last year, when she did not win a match on grass.

“I’ve had a good couple of months,” Swan said. “I feel like I’ve been gaining experience and showing that I can compete with some of the top girls.”

An aggressive baseliner with a potent serve, Swan turned 19 only three months ago but has already experienced some ups and downs in her career. At 15 she was runner-up in the Australian Open girls’ singles and at 16 she became Britain’s youngest Fed Cup player, only for injuries – which she now hopes to have put behind her – to halt her subsequent progress.

“I know there have been expectations,” Swan said. “Sometimes I feel a bit more pressure than at others, like during the grass-court season last year. I didn’t deal with that very well, but I feel like I’ve matured a lot in the last year.

“I understand that it doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks so long as I’m on my path, going the right way, doing everything I can on and off the court to be the best that I can. It doesn’t matter what the expectations are. I just do my best and the results will follow.”

Swan moved with her family to Wichita in Kansas at the age of 13 because of her father’s job. She now spends most of the year on the road and has not been home to the US for nearly four months.

When she is training in Britain Swan generally stays at the National Tennis Centre in Roehampton, but during Wimbledon she will be staying in a house with her family. Her mother has already joined her here and her father and brother will be arriving on Friday. However, it will be a few more weeks before she is reunited in Wichita with her four beloved dogs.

Katie Swan is one of Britain’s fastest rising stars (Julian Finney / Getty Images)

Swan thinks the move to the US was good for her tennis – her practice courts were right next to her school – but said she had had to work on keeping her British accent.

“The first summer when I came back here after we moved to the US everyone gave me so much stick about my accent,” Swan said. “They said that I sounded way too American. Since then I’ve tried to change that. I think I’m doing OK at the moment.”

She added: “I don’t feel American. I feel like I’m getting used to the American lifestyle, but in terms of my roots, for sure I’m 100 per cent British.”

Swan will be one of five British women aged between 19 and 23 – and all of them ranked between No 140 and No 220 in the world – who have been given wild cards at Wimbledon. She believes that the friendly rivalry between Katie Boulter, Harriet Dart, Katy Dunne, Gabriella Taylor and herself is helping all of them to progress.

She is currently ranked 206th in the world (Getty)

“It’s great that we’ll all be playing at Wimbledon,” Swan said. “It’s really good that there are so many girls coming through now. We’re pushing each other. I think we can get some good results. We’ve all been playing well.”

One of Swan’s goals for this year was to be ranked high enough to get into the qualifying tournament for the US Open later this summer, which should be no problem following her recent progress up the world rankings.

What of her long-term ambitions? “I want to be No 1 in the world and I want to win Slams,” she said. “My favourite Slam is Wimbledon, so winning Wimbledon would be a dream come true.”