RYAN Peniston is celebrating winning the first professional tournament of his tennis career.

Playing alongside partner Andrew Watson, Great Wakering’s Peniston won the Qatar ITF Futures doubles final, beating Richard Gabb and Luke Johnson 6-3, 7-6 in an all-British final.

And 22-year-old Peniston was thrilled to claim the victory in Doha.

“The victory was really pleasing because I haven’t won a professional tournament of any kind before so to do it with one of my closest friends made it even sweeter,” said Peniston.

“I wasn’t expecting it actually.

“As a tennis player you always hope to do well but you never know because matches become so close at this level so it was brilliant to get the win.

“But I can’t take all the credit because a lot of it should go to my partner Andrew.

“I’ve trained with him for the past three years in Memphis so for us to get the win together was a great feeling.”

However, despite the impressive victory, Peniston will still be focusing on his singles career and securing more success on his own.

“I’m still concentrating more on my singles career but my doubles game has developed well thanks to the great work that my coaches Paul Goebel and Chris Doerr have done with me at the University of Memphis,” said Peniston.

“I owe them a lot for what they’ve done but I’ll keep working hard to try and get even more success.”

Peniston has now worked his way into the top 1,000 players in the world and is currently 945th in the rankings.

But the former Southend High School pupil is determined to improve.

“My future goals are to get to the highest level of tennis that I can reach,” said Peniston.

“I want to play Wimbledon, and hopefully earn a living which isn’t an easy thing in this sport.”