THE newest national tennis champions have been crowned after the completion of the 2024 Australian Grasscourt Championships at Mildura Lawn Tennis Club on Saturday.
Players in the 12-and-under and 14-and-under age groups have staked their claim as athletes to watch in the future, following the footsteps of previous winners like Alex de Minaur, Thanasi Kokkinakis and Storm Sanders among others.
In the singles deciders it was 12-and-under girls fifth seed Musemma Cilek who had the longest battle for victory, recovering from a set down to defeat fourth seed Ami Dalla Pozza.
After dropping the opening set, Victorian Cilek, a finalist in December’s 12 and under Australian Junior Tour Masters, dug deep to record the 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 win.
This followed an almost three-hour battle in Friday’s semi-finals against top seed Suri Suchovsky 6-3, 4-6, 6-4.
All other singles finals resulted in straight sets victories.
Brooke Komorowski, the top seed in the 14-and-under girls section did not drop a set across the entire campaign, defeating the impressive second seed Bhavya Bhardwaj 7-6, 6-4.
Komorowski, a finalist in the December Showdown in Melbourne last month, proved her mettle as Bhardwaj had also not lost a set prior to their match-up.
The duo quickly had to put singles differences aside, however, as they teamed up to win their age group doubles title against Emilie Chen and Pauline Ma 7-5, 6-3 later in the day.
Queenslander Ryan Bolger loomed as the potential surprise victor in the 12-and-under boys category with the qualifier, following his round 1 victory over top seed Tommy Camus, making it all the way through to the final.
The youngster, however, ran into a red-hot Novak Palombo on court 2 at Mildura, with the Melbournian firing his way to an impressive 6-3, 6-1 win.
Across his five singles matches in Mildura, Palombo lost just 20 games while winning 60 of his own.
It was similarly impressive performance from Queensland’s Lucas Han as he secured the boys 14-and-under title over Heaton Pann 6-1, 6-4 in a battle of the top two seeds.
Han has shown a liking for Victorian grass courts after taking out the singles and doubles titles at the Victorian State Junior Grasscourt Championship in Swan Hill a few weeks ago.
In other doubles contests, Pann was able to shrug off his singles final loss to team with Flynn Coventry-Searle to win the 14 and under boys crown.
The pair were too strong for Victorian duo Ayaan Chowdhary and George Wills, winning 6-4, 6-4.
Dalla Pozza had a rough day, also going down in the 12-and-under girls doubles finale alongside partner Mieka Gordon-Threatt.
An epic final set took a long time to break, however it was Suchovski and Eleni Makentasis who won the title 6-3, 3-6, 15-13.
While he may have been eliminated in the opening round of singles, Camus had a better time of it in the 12-and-under boys doubles as the top seed.
He and fellow ACT player Jobe Dikkenberg were too strong for third seeds Daniel Abar and Christian Joseph, winning 6-1, 6-4.
