Olympic tennis star Storm Sanders sends message to students

Local Olympic tennis superstar Storm Sanders shared a personal message with her old primary school last week, aiming to inspire the kids to follow their dreams.

Last week students from Star of the Sea Catholic Primary School gathered together to hear a message sent by Sanders all the way from the Tokyo Olympics.

“I have been playing tennis since I was 6 years old at Rockingham Tennis Club and ever since I started playing I’ve always dreamed of being on the Olympic team and representing Australia at the Olympic Games,” Sanders said.

“I have been playing tennis and travelling the world for over 10 years and have played some amazing players including Ash Barty, who I’m actually playing doubles with here in the Olympics.

“All I would say to you is to dream big, believe in yourself, have fun and work hard and your dreams will come true.”

Her mum Genene Sanders was also at the assembly and was given a collection of notes written for her daughter by the school kids.

“She’s going to be so excited when she reads the messages these students have written for her. Education is a huge thing for Storm, and now she gets to be a role model to all these kids now which is amazing,” Mrs Sanders said.

School principal Mauricio Da Silva said the kids had been “so excited” all week to hear Storm’s special message for them.

“They’ve been talking about Storm non stop and about how they want to play tennis. I think the Rockingham City tennis club is going to have a massive influx of players soon,” Mr Da Silva said.

Sanders and Ash Barty beat China’s Yifan Xu and Zhaoxuan Yang in the second round of the women’s doubles at the Olympics on Monday.