Claire Smith from Hutton Rudby and Vicky Jones from Boldon are two more Durham and Cleveland tennis players heading west.

They are both 18-years-olds anxious to seek pastures new in the USA to further their tennis skills as well as gain degrees at university.

The Teessider, currently rated at 1.5 and thus fourth ranked in the county, has been a member at Tennis World Middlesbrough for ten years and prospered under a variety of coaches. She has played county senior tennis now for three years and has a string of junior titles to her name, not only at home but in other counties.

She will attend the University of Nevada at Las Vegas to study exercise science and have tennis tuition through a four-year scholarship, Kevin Cory will be her head coach and the UNLV tennis team is highly rated in the USA. County colleague Sarah Borwell is based in Last Vegas and since graduating and playing tennis full time has soared to become the British number eight in less than a year. Claire is hopeful of following n her footsteps and is very determined to succeed.

"Going to America is an ideal opportunity not to be missed," said Claire. "I hope to improve further as a tennis player and complete my higher education there."

Her parents are fully supportive realising how many opportunities are there. "The concentrated and very structured training programme which includes gym work and psychology should be ideal for Claire."

Vicky, who development at home has been fairly parallel to Claire and who also has a national standard rating of 1.5, has already left for the University of Tennessee at Knoxville.

She will study chemistry and hopefully gain a permanent place on the tennis team there, one of which is ranked in the top ten nationally. Mike Patrick will be her mentor. The Tynesider has been loyal to the Boldon TC where her father is head coach, although training elsewhere at times and has been a senior club player for many years.

She recently had her best ever set of tournament results in the Ilkley Open making the last four in her own age group at singles, but more significantly reaching the women's open singles semi-finals in the Hastings Direct Tour event and knocking out the second seed in the process.