Nine-year-old Thomas Ellis is already a winner on the international stage after victory in the under-nine competition at the Stockholmsspelen Tournament in Sweden recently.

Thomas, from Morecambe, has played since a young age as he follows in the footsteps of his older brother Toby and sister Bethany.

He has also twice been a mascot at the Mark Bates Ltd National Championships – on both occasions he was a ‘lucky charm’ for Men’s Singles champion Tom Jarvis, accompanying him in both winning finals.

At the two-day tournament in Sweden, Thomas was up against competitors from many of the big Swedish clubs and he was the only overseas player competing.

He won his U12 group on the Saturday, beating the top seed of the group, Mio Roseborg, 3-0. He then went out in the quarter-finals.

The Sunday was his main competition with 14 players in his age group. He got out of his group of five with three wins out of four, including two matches which went to a deciding fifth.

Thomas then progressed through the knockout stages, winning his quarter-final and semi-final, both in four, before taking the title confidently with a 3-0 (11-9, 11-6, 11-9) win in the final against Adrian Olsson.

The previous weekend, Thomas competed for the first time in the Lancashire County Trials at the Sir Tom Finney Sports Centre in Preston and was the youngest player to ever qualify for a place in the Cadet (U15) Lancashire County team, finishing second out of 20 entrants.