4 June 2014 | Tennis ACT

By Todd Larkham

The highlight during the month of May for ACT’s elite junior players was the Bathurst Bronze AMT.  Coaches and Tennis ACT staff Simon Tankey, Anthony Okines and Alun Jones took a large group of players to the 4 day event. Long days and evenings were experienced with the kids gaining plenty of matches within a high quality field. The best performing player in the AMT singles main draw was 15 year old Dimi Morogiannis, who made it all the way to the semi-finals. Whilst in the junior events, 11 year old Annerly Poulos once again put in an excellent tournament, reaching the final of the 14/u girls singles before going down to No.1 seed Patricia Apisah 4-6, 4-6.

Other notable results included Jack Tallarida-Lyons who won the 12/u Boys consolation, Sarina Kang reaching the quarter-finals of the AMT womens singles, Tallulah Farrow who won the 16/u girls singles consolation, Annerly Poulos and Martina Ujdur who were runners-up in the 14/U girls doubles and Jake Okines who pushed the No.1 seed Dimitri Vidin all the way before losing in 3 tight sets, in the 3rd round of the AMT mens singles.

Meanwhile overseas ACT’s Jake Eames continues to win matches and improve his ranking on the mens professional futures circuit. Jake is currently in the quarter-finals of the Croatian Futures, where he has defeated the No.2 seed in the first round and then the highly rated Australian Chris O’Connell. Also on the futures circuit is former ACT Academy scholarship holder Alex Nancarrow, is currently ranked 600 in the world in singles and 400 in doubles and is right now in the quarter-finals of the Tunisia $10,000 womens pro event.  The ACT tennis community will be able to see both players in action when they represent the Canberra Velocity in the ATL in late November 2014.

Bad luck to Nick Kyrgios in the first round of the French Open. Nick will be hoping for a better draw next year after going down to World No.8 Milos Raonic in 3 straight sets 3-6, 6-7, 3-6 in the first round. Nick’s focus now turns to grass courts, where he will play at least 2 events in preparation for the Wimbledon qualifying event that commences in the 3rd week of June.

Keep up to date with ACT players results by following them on these international websites. itftennis.com and atpworldtour.com