An all-Williams affair it may be but British tennis will be guaranteed representation at the Wimbledon women’s final in the shape of the Halesowen’s Jordanne Whiley.

The 16-year-old, the country’s national wheelchair tennis champion, has been asked to conduct the pre-game coin toss in front of the 15,000 people crammed into Centre Court and many millions more sure to be watching on live television.

The prospect is enough to rack even the calmest of nerves and a talented youngster who has spent the last two years flying up the world rankings by beating some of the best players on the circuit, finds herself strangely reticent about the prospect.

“I’ve thought to myself ‘Oh my God, what if I don’t flip it right?’” says Jordanne. “That would be so embarrassing.”

There shouldn’t be too much to worry about. Whiley has already demonstrated commendable hand-eye co-ordination in winning three tournaments this year and last month defended the domestic title she ripped from world No 10 Lucy Shuker in 2007.

And it’s not as if she’s going to be star-struck. “Maria Sharapova is my favourite player. I’m really disappointed she’s not going to be there. My second choice, though, would have been for both Williams sisters to make it through.”

For most people such an honour would be the annual highlight but for Whiley, who has just finished her GCSEs and is intending to study A-levels at Stourbridge College, it will prove yet another pleasing opportunity thrown up by a career that has so far presented so many.

Her most memorable event comes in September when she will be prevented from starting the next stage of her education by selection for the British Paralympic team in Beijing. Both she and Shuker have been called up to take on the world’s best in pursuit of gold.

The Dutch dominate the sport and any one of the four competitors they have at the top of the rankings could claim the ultimate prize but

Jordanne travels east as much in expectation as hope. “I have beaten the world No 10 and 11 this year so there is a chance I could do OK.
“I’m the youngest player in the draw so my goal is to get through a couple of rounds and if I get a good draw I could do that,” she says.

“If I don’t at least I’m there for the experience which will help me achieve my dream of winning the gold at London 2012.”

It is a sentence spoken with such a matter-of-fact tone that it is difficult not to assume the medal has already been awarded.

That conviction is not merely braggadocio. Jordanne has had to make sacrifices to reach the Olympics and needed special permission from her teachers at The Earls High School to even attempt qualifying.

To do that she had to improve her world ranking and as a result spent a lot of time on the continent, where she won tournaments at Sion, in Switzerland and two others in France.

She also passed three weeks in Florida where she came through a round in Boca Raton and Pensacola before being beaten by world No 1 Esther Vergeer and No 3 Sharon Walraven. It was not merely tennis however.

“I had to take a lot of course work with me and fit it around practice, training and playing. I actually did my revision for my French GCSE in Miami.”

With that sort of can-do attitude a coin toss should be nothing to worry about.