Top tennis player Kim Clijsters took to the court to show a Hockley schoolgirl that anything is possible when you bounce back from injury.

Harriet Fulcher, 13, suffered horrific injuries during a road crash in Hockley last year but was inspired to hear the Belgian number one player talk about how she was still cream of the Wimbledon crop despite her own battle to recover from knee and wrist injuries.

Clijsters is now one of the favourites to lift the women's plate at this year's championship and was featured rallying with Harriet during BBC Sport's Wimbledon coverage yesterday.

The tennis star has used her experiences of fighting back from injury to inspire young patients at Great Ormond Street Hospital, where Harriet was treated in June 2004 after sustaining a catalogue of shocking injuries.

Greensward student Harriet, of Southend Road, suffered a fractured skull, broken collar bone, facial paralysis, a bruised lung, a partially severed ear, perforated eardrum and 40 per cent loss of hearing to one ear.

She was taken to Southend Hospital's casualty department and was on a life support machine in the critical care unit before she was transferred the same evening to Great Ormond Street for specialist treatment.

Harriet needed six hours of neurosurgery and hundreds of hours of physiotherapy and was initially unable to smile due to nerve damage to her face. Now she can smile but still has very poor hearing in one ear.

The teenager was invited by the hospital after Clijsters said she wanted to coach some youngsters to play the game she loves.

Harriet went with her parents Debbie and Trevor to the Royal Bank Of England Sports Club, near Wimbledon, to play tennis with the champion.

She said: "It was really good.

"It was the first time I had met her and she was very friendly."

Harriet and two other girls from Great Ormond Street chatted to Clijsters about their injuries before they enjoyed some expert coaching to improve their forehands, backhands, lobs and volleys.

Now Harriet is rooting for her new friend to take the Wimbledon crown next Saturday.

She said: "She's doing all right so far, so hopefully she'll win."