Rising stars Emilie Chen, Ethan Domingo, Christian Joseph and Ana Maric won national singles titles in Canberra this week.
Canberra, Australia, 22 April 2024 | Leigh Rogers
Thirteen players from across four different states shared the titles at the 2024 Australian Claycourt Championships.
Held at the Canberra Tennis Centre, the six-day event featured 128 of Australia’s most promising junior athletes competing across the 12/u and 14/u age groups.
Ana Maric was a standout in the 12/u competition, with the Victorian scooping the girls’ singles and girls’ doubles titles.
Maric, who triumphed alongside South Australian Lara Wu in the girls’ doubles event, won all nine matches she contested throughout the championships and only lost a single set.
“It’s been a great week,” Maric said. “The facilities here are fantastic and the clay courts are amazing.”
Queensland’s Christian Joseph was crowned the 12/u boys’ singles champion.
“I played really good tennis and through everything never got negative,” Joseph said.
Emilie Chen claimed the 14/u girls’ singles and girls’ doubles titles to continue her memorable year.
“(It) feels so good to be champion. I’ve made semis and finals (at national level) before but never got the win, so to walk away with a win is great,” she said.
The 14-year-old, who has represented Australia at an ITF World Junior Tennis event in Malaysia and attended a Billie Jean King Cup camp in Brisbane in the past month, teamed with fellow New South Wales talent Vesna Marinkov to clinch the 14/u girls’ doubles crown.
Marinkov proved she is one to watch too, sharing the 14/u mixed doubles title with Victorian Raphael Savelli.
Top seed Ethan Domingo from New South Wales won the 14/u boys’ singles title.
“This is the first nationals I’ve won, which feels great,” Domingo said. “I played a good week (and) focused every match.”
The next major event on the Australian junior calendar is the Australian Team Championships, which will be played at the Gold Coast in June.
The Australian Hardcourt Championships follow in Adelaide during October.
2024 Australian Claycourt Championships – finals
12/u boys’ singles: [2] Christian Joseph (Qld) d [1] Tommy Camus (ACT) 6-3 7-6(8)
12/u girls’ singles: [1] Ana Maric (Vic) d [6] Piyushi Bandera (ACT) 6-4 6-1
12/u boys’ doubles: [3] Jiacheng Andrew Chen (NSW)/Sebastian Lavorato (NSW) d Johan Abdullah (NSW)/Arrush Gaikwad (NSW)…
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