Canberra tennis prodigy Amaya Muench will become the youngest student at Patrick Mouratoglou Academy when she relocates to France in August for a 12-month stint at the world-renowned tennis school.
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Mouratoglou's long list of pupils over the years has included Serena Williams, Coco Gauff, Marcos Baghdatis and Grigor Dimitrov, while his tennis academy has helped nurture the world's best young players for the past 25 years.
Amaya's family will travel with her to live in the south of France, as the-10-year-old pursues her goals of winning the Australian Open by the age of 17, and becoming the world's number one player.
"I'm excited to represent Australia, train with the amazing European junior stars and train with my new coaches," Amaya said.
"I like challenges, I like getting challenged in training. Sometimes it's a bit hard and sometimes it's okay."
With role models like her four favourite tennis players Naomi Osaka, Novak Djokovic, Andrey Rublev and Ashleigh Barty, the young star was confident her game was heading in the right direction.
"[I model my game after] mainly the girls, I just like the boys because of what they do with their forehand and backhand and how they play their game, and the girls I try to copy them sometimes," she said.
"[My biggest strengths are] my forehand, very powerful if I do say so myself, and my serves are getting better so I'd say they're my second best. [I'm working on] my slices and Volleys, I don't like them that much."
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The Patrick Mouratoglou Academy provides a year-round program which offers academic and sports tuition, mixed in with an intensive training schedule.
Amaya, who first picked up a racquet at four years of age, will be one of just 15 students at the academy between the ages of 10 and 13.
"When she got to the age of seven that's when it started getting a bit more serious and she decided to up her training," her mother Yelena said.
"At the moment she's 10 and trains five times a week, and then tournaments on top of that plus yoga and strength training. As she's matured and gotten older, she's a lot more serious and she just loves to be on the court.
"It was her choice to go to France. Obviously, she wants to go there to get coached by some of the best coaches and play with some of the best junior European stars. She's little but those forehands, so much power."
Amaya has been coached in Canberra by WTA players Monique Adamczak and Alison Bai, who have been working closely with some of the Territory's brightest stars.
"Obviously Amaya going over to the Mouratoglou Academy, it's one of the best in the world, if not the best in the world and we're very keen to see her progress and how she's going to go," Adamczak said.
"I think they are selective and it's not for everyone that whole experience. It's demanding and it is something that Amaya herself really wants to do."
