By Pippa Field

Bromley’s Harvey Conway admitted his first ever appearance at SW19 had been bitter sweet after he was forced to withdraw early from the HSBC Road to Wimbledon National 14 and Under Challenge Finals with injury.

The 14-year-old Bromley Tennis Club starlet has often dreamt about starring on the famous Wimbledon lawn courts, imagining one day he would get the chance to strut his stuff there.

His opportunity came last week having booked himself a spot at SW19 after competing in his Regional Finals.

However, an arm injury picked up in the run up to the tournament proved too big to overcome and he retired in his opening match, trailing 4-6, 0-1.

He said afterwards: “I had to retire in my first match because of injury. I hurt my arm, it was something I had going into the match.

“I played a tournament before Wimbledon and towards the end of the tournament I felt it.

“But I really wanted to play at Wimbledon, as it was my first time here.

“It’s such a shame and I’m quite upset.

“But you can’t run the risk of picking up a longer term injury.”

Conway, who attends Langley Park Boys School, even got the chance to meet former British number one and HSBC Tournament Ambassador Henman during his time at Wimbledon.

Henman spent time with the players, signed autographs, and posed for photos with the finalists and insisted he was impressed with the standard on show this year at SW19.

“There’s 20,000 kids every year with the Road to Wimbledon and it’s great to see how the standard has improved over the years,” said Henman, a four-time Wimbledon semi-finalist.

“There are some really good young players.

“It’s a great week here but it’s then a lot longer than that with the process of playing in their local areas and regionally and coming through.

“It’s a great carrot for the youngsters to realise they’ve got this opportunity of coming to play at Wimbledon.”

The HSBC Road to Wimbledon National 14 & Under Challenge is the UK's largest national junior grass court tournament and forms part of HSBC’s investment in the stars of the future.