Nemiah Fletchman was affectionately known as ‘Tennis-saurus’ when he was little, for two reasons. The first was that Nemiah had almost reached his adult height of 6ft 3in before he was barely out of short trousers; the other was obvious to anyone who saw him in action on the rundown tennis courts near his home in Manchester’s Moss Side.
What a serve the young man had. Timed at 120 mph, he blew opponents away. Even in this football-mad city, everyone knew Nemiah was something special.
His family received financial backing — to the tune of £100,000 — from Wayne Rooney’s agent Paul Stretford, whose Cheshire-based agency is committed to helping grassroots sport in the area.
By 16, Nemiah was ranked in the top ten in his age group in Britain. In a Sunday newspaper profile of him at the time, his coach tipped him for Wimbledon, likening his prodigy to the legendary Pete Sampras and big-hitting Argentinian star Juan Martin del Potro. Read more
