This year’s AO presented this opportunity to 7 of our young Foundation players.
The Australian Open juniors each year presents an opportunity for those ranked high enough to be able to compete against the World’s best young players in their own backyard.
This year’s AO presented this opportunity to 7 of our young Foundation players. Three players- Charlotte Vanstone-McGrath, Gabby Villegas and Aryan Karnani all competed in AO junior qualifying. Four players competed in main draw- Ava Beck, Koharu Nishikawa, Nikolas Baker and Ymerali Ibraimi.
Beck lost to top 10 ranked junior Mingge Xu, Baker had a tough three set loss to top 30 ranked Zangar Nurlanuly, with Nishikawa pushing top 5 ranked Jeline Vandrome to go down in three sets also.
Ymerali Ibraimi had a fantastic first round win over Brazilian Pedro Dietrich before going down to third seeded Amir Omarkhanov in the second round. “It was so exciting to playin front of my home crowd with family and friends watching. Playing my second-round match on show court 3 is something I won’t forget. The whole experience has made me want to work harder and motivated me more than ever.” Said Ibraimi who also contested the boys doubles.
Beck and Nishikawa teamed up in the girls doubles, going down in an epic to highly ranked Bulgarian pair Rositsa Dencheva / Elizara Yaneva 6-3, 2-6, 9-11. “It was a really tough loss to take, we played some quality doubles points, really took the ball on and felt like we had our opportunities. But we will bounce back and learn from this match” Beck said reflecting on the contest.
Well done to all players on their Australian Open experience.
