Tennis ace books Wimbledon date

The Amherst Lawn Tennis Club member will join the winners from similar events all over the country at the All England Club for finals' week which runs from August 16-21.

The 13-year-old also has the appetising prospect of playing in the mixed doubles event with star-in-the-making Kate Smith of Horsham.

Father Pete said: "He's really looking forward to it, it'll be a great experience. To be honest he's not going there with any great expectations but sometimes you do better than you think, you never know."

The finals will initially take the form of a round-robin competition on courts 13-18 with the group winners advancing to a knock-out section.

But qualifying in itself was a special and quite unique feat, in terms of the peculiar manner with which it was achieved. At the third of four different venues which he was required to play, he found himself a set and a break down to Rupert Larkin of The Green. At which point "he kicked off his shoes and then played like a demon in his socks and won it", according to Pete.

The veritable labyrinth of a qualification process finally concluded at the West Worthing Lawn Tennis Club on Saturday, last week, when the second seed, who benefited from the withdrawal of the top ranked player, out-played Michael Goode (East Grinstead) 7-6, 6-3 in the semi-finals and Dean Cronk (Angmering) 6-0, 6-1 in the decider.

The Hastings Open champion, a county finalist both of the last two years, follows in the footsteps of fellow Claverham pupil Suzy Larkin who played in the girls' finals at 12 and under level last year.

Felix was also the undoubted star of the Amherst Closed Tournament. He may have lost the final of the men's singles 6-3, 6-2 to the far more experienced defending champion Andy Chapman but he broke the record for the youngest player ever to appear in any of the club's senior finals by merely reaching such an advanced stage.

And he won all four junior events he entered, the highlight being the 18 and under boys' singles.