O'Donoghue relishes Centre Court test against the champion
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Your support makes all the difference.After receiving a wild card for Wimbledon, Jane O'Donoghue, a 19-year-old from Wigan, had a premonition that she would play Venus Williams, the world No 1, on Centre Court next Tuesday, the day traditionally set aside for the women's singles champion to open the defence of her title.
When the draw was made yesterday, O'Donoghue, the world No 347, was gob-smacked. "This is my day off, and I was relaxing," she said. "I'm very excited. I had a feeling I'd been playing Venus, but now I can't believe it."
Characteristically, O'Don-oghue added: "I'd much rather be on Centre Court than one of the outside courts. Now I've got a week to prepare and get my head ready."
O'Donoghue is a member of a Lawn Tennis Association training squad based at the All England Club and supervised by Nick Brown, the British Fed Cup coach. "Jane has the same desire as Tim [Henman] did to get better and better,"Brown said. "I think she'll do OK."
A year ago, O'Donoghue was ranked in the top 25 in the junior world ranking, but then a knee injury put her out of the game for six months. She resumed playing in January, since when she has competed in 80 singles and doubles matches, winning clay-court satellite tournaments in Bournemouth and Hatfield.
"It was a worrying time when I had the injury," she said, "especially in August last year, because at the time nobody could tell me what exercises to do. Then I was put in touch with James Sell in Manchester, and he got me back in six weeks. I worked for six hours a day in the gym. I realised how much a missed tennis. I really want to go for it."
O'Donoghue's father is a teacher and her mother works for a bank. Both of her brothers studied at Oxford. "I had decent GCE results, but I have no regrets about choosing tennis as a career,"she said.
The LTA pays for her accommodation with a local family, her practice courts and her overseas travel. She pays for her own rackets and tennis shoes. Her prize-money so far this year is about £5,000.
Among O'Donoghue's support group is Gloria Budd, a sports psychologist who worked with Barry Cowan, the wild card from Southport who took Pete Sampras to five sets in the second round at Wimbledon last year. "I'll be using her a lot this week," O'Donoghue said.
Not that she is overawed by the prospect of competing against an opponent whose goal is to win the title for the third year in a row. "I played an exhibition against Martina Navratilova on Centre Court at Eastbourne last year," O'Don-oghue recalled. "I was out there with the greatest player of all time, and I felt relaxed about it."
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