Since 2005, the D'Auriol Scholarship has sponsored an up-and-coming local junior a trip to the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy. Last year's recipient, 11-year-old Joyce Leung, recounts thoughtfully her journey to Florida over the summer.

Initially, the D'Auriol Scholarship was set up following the unfortunate death of Teo, a budding 12-year-old tennis player who aspired to represent the territory at the highest level. A drowning accident in 2004, however, tragically ended that dream.

Knowing how his son used to look forward to visiting the famed Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy each summer, Yan D'Auriol decided to set up a tennis scholarship the following year to benefit other HK-born juniors who may one day go on to become a HK representative and accomplish what Teo was denied.

For the past seven years, a local junior from a non-privileged background was offered an all-expense paid trip to the NBTA during the summer. As a general pointer, the recipient is someone who would appreciate and benefit from such an opportunity.

Past recipients of the D'Auriol Scholarship were:

2005	Lorraine Cheung
2006	Oscar Cheung
2007	Vivian Lin
2008	Lawrence Lo
2009	Suki Law
2010	Jack Wong

Joyce Leung, who captured the Lions Hong Kong National Junior Tennis Championships 2010 Girls' 10 & Under title and later finished the season as the year-end No. 1 in Hong Kong, was selected as the 2011 D'Auriol Scholarship recipient.

Earlier this summer, she spent three weeks at the NBTA over in the sunshine state. In the following passages, Joyce recounts in her own words her first-ever trip to the United States:

It was a normal Saturday morning in June and after I finished my regular tennis training, my dad led me to a gentleman at court side. He told me that I was one of the nominated candidates and subsequently awarded the D'Auriol Scholarship 2011.

That meant I could train for three weeks in the United States during summer.

I was very excited about this opportunity and felt so honored to be the recipient of this award.

I would like to thank Mr. Yan D'Auriol, the sponsor of this scholarship, the HKTA for the nomination, and Roland Liu who personally looked after me on everything throughout this trip.

The Bollettieri tennis Camp was the first tennis camp I have ever attended and it really enriched my horizons during those 3 weeks. I met many players and coaches from different countries all over the world, such as Russia, Italy, Japan, and United Kingdom, etc.

Starting every morning at 8am, we had a mental conditioning class, followed by fitness training for about an hour. From 10:00 – 12:30, we had different on court training drills. There was also match-play from 15:00 – 17:00 every day.

During the weekends, we got the chance to go to the beach, visit Adventure Island, and even trying out mini-golf. I also went to a Tampa Bay Rays baseball game.

This camp was great because it not only gave me an opportunity to improve my tennis, but also the chance to meet people from other parts of the world.

One of the things I recalled most was the level of the players at Bollettieri is very high and it keeps reminding me that if I want to be a tennis player in the future, which is my dream, I need to practice more and harder.

I first started playing mini tennis when I was in Primary One. Even though I didn't play particularly well in the beginning, I loved the game of tennis and enjoyed every minute of it.

When I reached Primary Three, the school coach said I could move on to regular tennis and after that I joined various programmes under the HKTA, ranging from Youth Athletes, to Feeder Squad, and eventually to Performance 2 this year.

One of my favourite tennis players is Michael Chang. I admire his passion about tennis and his heart to train and develop tennis to young novices. This is my vision also to eventually devote myself to sharing my passion with the next generation with the hope that tennis will continue to become more popular and affordable in Hong Kong.