Roisín climbed the rankings to reach top five in Ireland

The September monthly winner of The Connaught Telegraph Mayo Young Sports Stars Awards lit up the courts around Ireland.

Driven, dedicated and determined are just three of the many attributes of Leaving Certificate student Roisín Murphy, who attends St. Joseph's Secondary School in Castlebar. She needed those attributes and many more to achieve what she did in 2019 - reach number five in the Irish Junior Tennis Team rankings.

Roisín's ambition is to go to the US on scholarship, and those involved in the tough world of tennis tell us that she ticks all the boxes. She also plans to improve her ranking in her last year at junior level.

Roisín is very appreciative of the support she has been given since she began winning tournaments around Ireland at Under 14 level as a member of Castlebar Tennis Club.

However, it was necessary for her - on the advice of her head coach Garrett Barry - to spend some time training and competing in Dublin if her aspirations of playing against and beating the best are to be realised. She makes regular weekend journeys, at a huge cost to herself and to her very supportive family, and making the top five in Ireland made it all worthwhile.

Among the many highlights in 2019 for Roisín were winning the Castlebar Pamex Senior Women's singles title, the South of Ireland junior title, reaching the national indoor semi-finals, and playing for her province at both Under 18 and senior level. She also competed at internationals in Latvia, Holland and Serbia.