Tennis star Maia Lumsden using lay-off to work on strength and conditioning

Tennis Scotland’s International Player of the Year is free from injury and illness

Maia Lumsden was named Tennis Scotland’s International Player of the Year. Picture: Julian Finney/Getty Images

The coronavirus lockdown has put the brakes on tennis player Maia Lumsden’s drive to return to competitive action after injury and illness.

The 22-year-old was recently named Tennis Scotland’s International Player of the Year on the back of an encouraging 2019 which saw her reach a career-high WTA ranking of 250 in October.

During the year she reached two W25 ITF tournament finals, in South Korea and Israel.

She also reached the semi-final of the W25 in Glasgow and the quarter-finals of the higher-rated W60 tournament in Shrewsbury.

Like everyone else in the sporting world, Lumsden is currently in lockdown, which is particularly frustrating for her as she is now recovered from an injury which curtailed her playing activities towards the end of the year.

However, she has been buoyed by her recent reward from Tennis Scotland.

“It’s always good to get recognised,” she said. “I had a decent year reaching a career high ranking, so it was good progress in the right direction.

“In the last few months of last year and at the start of this year I was injured so it’s actually been a long time since I’ve actually competed.

“I had a hand injury last year, which is sorted now, and at the start of this year I was ill for a couple of months so I was just building back in when the lockdown started.

“I’m better now and am just trying to build up my fitness fully so it has been a good chance to do a lot of strength and conditioning work and get fully fit again.”

Current circumstances mean aspects of her training programme have been curtailed, with on-court-practice – such a staple part of a tennis regime – almost impossible at the moment.

She admitted: “That’s obviously difficult but it’s the same for everyone. Me and my brother have been hitting out in the street a few times, just to try and keep the feeling.

“But it could be a long time before the international competitions are back for me. With training usually there’s a kind of goal, something to train for which keeps the motivation going, but it’s so uncertain there’s nothing really to look forward to.

“But sport obviously comes after health so we just have to wait it out.”

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