Tennis: Young tennis ace calls all the shots

Morningside tennis ace Daniel Hammond may be Whangarei's most talented 9-year-old.

The pint sized primary school pupil regularly beats Northlanders up to the age of 14, but if you are after his secret, then, sorry, you are out of luck.

Hammond's success is simple in his eyes: "I just try to get every ball back and bounce back to the middle."

One would imagine that, as a 9-year-old, taking on someone up to five years older than you would be a scary task.

No way, not to this young star.

The only difference he sees when playing someone older is they tend to hit the ball slightly harder, which isn't really a worry to Hammond who also consistently comes either first or second in his school cross country.

Hammond has recently returned from a trip to Australia with coach Pete Stenberg where he won an armful of trophies in the under-10s category and the doubles.

Hammond's mum Ann said that he was always going to excel at whichever sport he chose.

"His hand-eye co-ordination has always been amazing, even when he was just in the lounge catching a ball from us," she said of Hammond who plays football with Whangarei FC.

"He's always played soccer and has grown up on the sideline watching sport, just give him a ball and he can play that sport basically.

"He's just a natural sportsperson, which is annoying to some people but he just loves it."

Ann said watching her boy transform on court was always an interesting feeling.

"When he was playing the top seed in Aussie it got intense, it's probably the most intense game I've seen out of him, he was playing his hardest."