Anne Keothavong hopes her path from the parks of Hackney to Wimbledon's show courts can inspire inner-city youngsters to pursue their sporting dreams.

As the 25-year-old British No 1 launches her Wimbledon campaign today she recalls how her route to SW19 began on the graffiti-scarred concrete courts of east London.

Keothavong said: “I don't think there have been too many top British players from the inner city.

“I think I'm the only one who learned to play at a local park rather than a tennis club.”

Keothavong will meet Austrian Patricia Mayr in her first-round match on Court 4 today.

Last year she was knocked out in the second round after putting up a brave fight against eventual champion Venus Williams.

But the All England Club is a world away from her early experiences.

She said: “I first started with short tennis at the Michael Sobell [sports centre] in Islington. My brother went so I just tagged along.

“By the time I was seven I was playing a lot of tennis at Hackney Downs, Clissold Park, Highbury Fields and Islington Tennis Centre.

“I was entered into local competitions but I didn't win much at the start because I didn't really know what a fore and backhand was. I didn't train full-time until after my GCSEs.

“It's not like these days when these kids are home-schooled.

“I never went to any of the foreign academies. I was one of four children and those things aren't cheap so it wasn't really an option.”

When she is not travelling around the world with the women's tour, Keothaving still lives with her parents in Hackney, close to the site of her former school, Kingsland.

Her mother, Vathana, had fled her home country of Laos to escape the Vietnam War. As a refugee she met Keothavong's father, Somsak, an orphan taken in by monks who later came to Britain as a student.

Her parents ferried her to tournaments up and down the country each day because they could not afford to stay in a hotel overnight.

She said: “Without my parents' support, I would never have made it as a professional tennis player.

“They gave up so much time to chaperone me around the country.”

This is the second year in a row that she has qualified for Wimbledon automatically through her ranking (she recently broke into the top 50).

But she does not find herself on Centre Court today or even the new Court 2, where wildcard and junior Wimbledon champion Laura Robson crashed out yesterday.

Keothavong, though, refuses to gripe about the level of recognition or the amount of sponsorship she gets.

She said: “The harder you work the better you do. The better you do the more money you get.

“I think I've done pretty well considering the school I went to.”