SUPER sisters Aisling and Amber Massey of Okehampton are national champions after they won the Aegon Senior Student National Tennis Finals in March as part of the Exeter College tennis team.

Eight teams from around the UK played in the finals at Bolton Arena on March 12 after progressing through regional heats.

The 17-year-old twin sisters won all of their singles and doubles matches in convincing fashion, helping the team to a 10-2 win in the final against Benenden School from Kent.

The duo have been playing tennis since they were five years old, starting under the tutelage of David Carter at Okehampton Tennis Club. In 2009 they were selected to play for West Devon in the Devon Youth Games and won silver medals in 2010 and bronze medals in 2011.

They then became members of Tavistock Tennis Club and have been coached by Linden Hardisty ever since, playing for Tavistock in the Plymouth and District Junior League.

Since starting at Exeter College they have also been coached by Steve Ashton and played for the school in inter-college matches. Amber is studying BTEC Sports Performance and Excellence, and Aisling is studying BTEC Applied Science (Medical).

Aisling said: ’It felt great and quite surreal to win the finals and become national champions. It felt like all of our hard work and training had paid off. We thought we were good enough to get to the finals as we had a strong team but didn’t expected to win the whole competition.’

The pair also play table tennis and badminton. They are both currently in Exeter College’s badminton team and have once again made it to the national finals in April.

While they would like to progress further in the sport, they are both aware of the uphill struggles athletes face.

Amber said: ’It would be great to take it [tennis] further but we don’t feel the opportunities are there for girls in this country to proceed onto higher tennis. We have struggled for years to find competitions to play in against other girls to move up the ratings.

’When we start at university we will need to concentrate on our studies more there. We hope to carry on competing in any competitions that come our way.’

The girls were part of an Exeter team that had another pair of sisters from Sidmouth, Molly and Katie Wiltshire, and reserve Linda Heggen.