THE young star of Bromley Tennis Club's unbeaten start to their defence of the National Club League title has been serving aces elsewhere.

Sean Thornley, 16, has achieved something which has not been done by any other male British player in his age group.

He is the first junior player since 2004 to gain a world ranking point on the men's professional tennis circuit.

The momentous point was won at the $15,000 Futures event in Bournemouth where Sean was a wild card entry.

After beating Alex Slabinsky ranked 598 in the world in two sets, Sean was awarded his ranking point, leaving him 1,533 in the world.

In the second round Sean faced Marco Crugnola of Italy, seven years his senior at 23, and went down 6-2 6-3 despite breaking serve twice.

Crugnola had recently lost narrowly to Andrew Murray and beatenformer world number eight Hicham Arazi of Morocco.

Sean, who lives in West Wickham, had been granted wild card entry on the basis of his performances in two under-18 tournaments.

He was runner-up in a Sutton competition out of more than 180 competitors and won the doubles at a similar tournament in Nottingham.

There are now only two players in Great Britain born a year or more before Andrew Murray who have achieved a men's world ranking one is Sean and the other is Daniel Cox, who is based in Spain.

Sean is already looking forward to the challenge saying: "I want to break into the top 1,000 as a 17-year-old and progress as far as I can at this year's junior Wimbledon.

"I also want to break into the top 500 in the world as an 18-year-old and into the top 100 before I am 21."