Kate Tunstall and brother DanTENNIS ace Dan Tunstall, who recently took up the post of chief tennis coach at Devizes Leisure Centre, is proud of the achievements of his elder sister, Kate, who has become a singing sensation under the name KT Tunstall.

Mr Tunstall said that there is nothing flash-in-the-pan about his sister's success, and it is the result of years of hard work and commitment to her art.

He said: "My sister Kate has always loved performing. She was always off to act in drama groups, tap dancing, flute and piano performances. She first started writing and performing her own material at university."

Mr Tunstall was born deaf and, because of the family's efforts to teach him to speak, there was never very much music on in the background. But Kate's success has had an unexpected effect for Mr Tunstall.

He said: "I like having a go on Kate's drummer's drum kit. I can hear that!"

Mr Tunstall and the rest of his family are delighted at Kate's success. He said: "We have always supported her as a family but it took her a few years to break through and my mum and dad got a bit anxious when she was struggling to make it.

"We are all really excited for her now and have a great time going to her gigs and seeing her audiences get bigger and bigger.

"Last week she had 2,500 packed out in Glasgow."

He absolutely adores his sister's music, though not perhaps for the reasons you might expect.

Mr Tunstall said: "She writes all her own words and music, always about her friends and things that have happened in her life. As I know some of these friends, I find some songs especially interesting.

"Her style has been called folk/melodic rock and guitar-strumming folk-with-attitude. Whatever you call it, I think it's fantastic!"

Despite Kate's meteoric success, she and her family remain close. She has a particularly close relationship with her tennis-playing brother.

He said: "We text most days. I last saw her backstage after her gig at Shepherds Bush last week when she gave the family a framed gold disc of Eye to the Telescope that she received for selling 100,000 copies. We're hoping for a platinum one next!"

Mr Tunstall is building a reputation as a first class tennis player and won the national singles title in 1997 and 1998. He is third seed for the title this year. He is finding a great deal of local enthusiasm for the game in Devizes. "It's a lively place and my coaching sessions are growing very nicely, with several of my performance players progressing well in tournaments," he said.