MANY of the world’s top under-14s tennis players will compete at the USN Bolton Arena over the next week.

The event, which was first played in 1995 and has seen a number of now-familiar names as winners, runs for eight days starting on Friday.

Sir Andy Murray, Thomas Berdych, Marcus Baghdatis, Caroline Wozniacki, Justin Henin and Kim Cloijsters are all past winners of the boys' and girls' singles titles, respectively.

This year's boys' event includes the current European number one u14 player, Belgium’s Alexander Blockx, who has already won twice at European u16 level and last year lost in the quarter-final of this event at Bolton to the eventual winner Victor Lilov.

The highest-ranked British boy is UK number one Loca Pow, who is ranked 11 in Europe and last year won two singles and one doubles title in Tennis Europe events.

The highest-ranked girl is Victoria Kasinteva, who is ranked number five in Europe.

She won four events last year and reached the last 16 in the Florida Orange Bowl, known as the unofficial World Championships.

Players from the north of England include Alexander Tikhonov, Henry Searle, Victor Frydrych, and Oliver Hague.

The girls' event features Lancashire number one Ella McDonald, who is joined by other northern girls, Gabriella Lindley, Vlada Kozak, Millie Skelton and Jadesola Cole.

A qualifying event for entry into the main draw takes place on Friday and Saturday and the main draw events will start on Sunday.

Entry to watch is free which makes the event a great chance to see future stars of the tennis world playing in Lancashire.

Play is scheduled to finish around 5pm most days and updates are available via the Tennis Europe website, www.tenniseurope.org